Isaiah 41:21 (ASV)

Passage

Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 41:19 I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, and the myrtle, and the oil-tree; I will set in the desert the fir-tree, the pine, and the box-tree together:

Isaiah 41:20 that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

Isaiah 41:21 Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.

Isaiah 41:22 Let them bring forth, and declare unto us what shall happen: declare ye the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

Isaiah 41:23 Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "produce", "cause", "saith", "jehovah", "bring", "forth", "strong", and "reasons". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "produce" and "cause", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "that they may see and know and..." into verse 22's "Let them bring forth and declare unto...", so "produce" and "cause" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "produce" and "cause" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.