Isaiah 40
1Comfort, oh comfort My people,Says your God.
2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,And declare to herThat her term of service is over,That her iniquity is expiated;For she has received at GOD’s hand Double for all her sins.
3A voice rings out:“Clear in the desertA road for GOD!Level in the wildernessA highway for our God!
4Let every valley be raised,Every hill and mount made low.Let the rugged ground become levelAnd the ridges become a plain.
5The Presence of GOD shall appear,And all flesh, as one, shall behold—For GOD has spoken.”
6A voice rings out: “Proclaim!”Another asks, “What shall I proclaim?”“All flesh is grass,All its goodness like flowers of the field:
7Grass withers, flowers fadeWhen GOD’s breath blows on them.Indeed, people are but grass:
8Grass withers, flowers fade—But the word of our God is always fulfilled!”
9Ascend a lofty mountain,O herald of joy to Zion;Raise your voice with power,O herald of joy to Jerusalem—Raise it, have no fear;Announce to the cities of Judah:Behold your God!
10Behold, my Sovereign GOD comes in might—Whose arm wins triumph;See, [God] has brought along the reward,The recompense is in view.
11Like a shepherd who pastures the flock,[God] gathers up the lambsAnd carries them in an embrace,While gently driving the mother sheep.
12Who measured the waters with a hand’s hollow,And gauged the skies with a span,And meted earth’s dust with a measure, “third,” probably a third of an ephah. And weighed the mountains with a scaleAnd the hills with a balance?
13Who has plumbed the mind of GOD?Can anyone disclose God’s plan?
14Whom did [God] consult, and who bestowed understanding,Providing guidance in the way of right?Who guided [God] in knowledgeAnd made known the path of wisdom?
15The nations are but a drop in a bucket,Reckoned as dust on a balance;The very coastlands are lifted like motes.
16Lebanon is not fuel enough,Nor its beasts enough for sacrifice.
17All nations are as naught in God’s sight,Who accounts them as less than nothing.
18To whom, then, can you liken God,With what form can you make comparison?
19The idol? A woodworker shaped it,And a smith overlaid it with gold,Forging links of silver.
20As a gift, someone chooses the mulberry; according to a Jewish tradition, preserved by Jerome, a kind of wood; a similar word denotes a kind of wood in Akkadian.—A wood that does not rot—Then seeks a skillful woodworkerTo make a firm idol,That will not topple.
21Do you not know?Have you not heard?Have you not been toldFrom the very first?Have you not discernedHow the earth was founded?
22It is [God] who is enthroned above the vault of the earth,So that its inhabitants seem as grasshoppers;Who spread out the skies like gauze,Stretched them out like a tent to dwell in—
23Bringing potentates to naught,Making rulers of the earth as nothing.
24Hardly are they planted,Hardly are they sown,Hardly has their stemTaken root in earth,When [God] blows upon them and they dry up,And the storm bears them off like straw.
25To whom, then, can you liken Me,To whom can I be compared?—says the Holy One.
26Lift high your eyes and see:Who created these?The One who sends out their host by count,Who calls them each by name:Given such great might and vast power,Not one fails to appear.
27Why do you say, O Jacob,Why declare, O Israel,“My way is hid from GOD,My cause is ignored by my God”?
28Do you not know?Have you not heard? The ETERNAL is God from of old,Creator of the earth from end to end,Who never grows faint or weary,Whose wisdom cannot be fathomed—
29Who gives strength to the weary,Fresh vigor to the spent.
30Youths may grow faint and weary,And young men stumble and fall;
31But they who trust in GOD shall renew their strengthAs eagles grow new plumes: They shall run and not grow weary,They shall march and not grow faint.