Isaiah 40

Comfort for God’s People

¹Comfort, comfort my people,

says your God.

²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her hard service has been completed,

that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.

³A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert

a highway for our God.

⁴Every valley shall be raised up,

every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

the rugged places a plain.

⁵And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

⁷The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

⁸The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God endures forever.”

⁹You who bring good news to Zion,

go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,

lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

¹⁰See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,

and he rules with a mighty arm.

See, his reward is with him,

and his recompense accompanies him.

¹¹He tends his flock like a shepherd:

He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on the scales

and the hills in a balance?

¹³Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord,

or instruct the Lord as his counselor?

¹⁴Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,

and who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge,

or showed him the path of understanding?

¹⁵Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales;

he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,

nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.

¹⁷Before him all the nations are as nothing;

they are regarded by him as worthless

and less than nothing.

¹⁸With whom, then, will you compare God?

To what image will you liken him?

¹⁹As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and fashions silver chains for it.

²⁰A person too poor to present such an offering

selects wood that will not rot;

they look for a skilled worker

to set up an idol that will not topple.

²¹Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

²²He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,

and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

²³He brings princes to naught

and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

²⁴No sooner are they planted,

no sooner are they sown,

no sooner do they take root in the ground,

than he blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

²⁵“To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one

and calls forth each of them by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

²⁷Why do you complain, Jacob?

Why do you say, Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord;

my cause is disregarded by my God”?

²⁸Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

³¹but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.