Isaiah 40:1-31
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says
your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and
cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she
has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
3 A voice cries: "In the
wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway
for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has
spoken."
6 A voice says, "Cry!"
And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its
beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower
fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower
fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
9 Get you up to a high mountain, O
Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem,
herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah,
"Behold your God!"
10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with
might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his
recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a
shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his
bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who has measured the waters in
the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the
dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the
hills in a balance?
13 Who has measured the Spirit of
the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult, and who
made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him
knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are like a
drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he
takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for
fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing
before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains.
20 He who is too impoverished for
an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
21 Do you not know? Do you not
hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he who sits above the
circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches
out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted,
scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows
on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To whom then will you compare
me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high and
see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them
all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and
speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is
disregarded by my God"?
28 Have you not known? Have you not
heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint, and
to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be
weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the LORD
shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they
shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
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