‘Present your argument’,
Yahweh says.
‘Bring up your strong points’,
says Ya’aqob’s King.
They should bring them up
and tell us what will happen.
The previous events – tell us what they were,
so we may apply our mind and acknowledge their outcome.
Or let us hear about the coming events,
tell us things that will arrive after,
so we may acknowledge that you are gods.
Yes, do something good or do something bad,
so we may bow low and see together.
Here, you’re less than nothing,
your action is less than a sigh;
it’s an offence that someone chooses in you.

I aroused one from the north and he arrived,
from the rising of the sun one who would call on my name.
He came on viceroys as if they were mire,
as if he was a potter who treads clay.
Who told of it from the beginning so we might acknowledge him,
beforehand so we might say ‘He was right’?

No, there was no one telling of it; no,
there was no one letting us hear about it; no,
there was no one hearing your words.
The first for Tsiyyon (‘Here, here they are’),
for Yerushalaim, I give a bringer of news.
Were I to look, there was no one;
of them, there was no counsellor,
who could speak a word back if I asked them.
There, they are all a bane, their acts are zero,
their images are a breath, emptiness.

Goldingay, John; Goldingay, John; Wright, Tom; Wright, Tom. The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.

God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.