Isaiah 40:1-26 ▼

1 “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your? God.

2 “Speak upon the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her, that her service has been fulfilled, that her iniquity has been pardoned, for she has received from the hand of YHWH double for all her sins.”

3 The voice of one calling in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of YHWH, make straight in the desert plain a highway for our God.

4 Every valley will be lifted up, and every mountain and hill brought low; and the crooked will become straight, and the rugged a plain;

5 and the glory of YHWH will be revealed, and all flesh together will see it. For the mouth of YHWH has spoken.”

6 The voice of one saying: “Call out!” And he said, “What shall I call out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of YHWH blows on it. Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades, and the word of our God stands forever.”

9 Upon a high mountain go up yourself, O Zion, bringing news! Lift up with strength your voice to Jerusalem, bringing news! Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your? God!”

10 Behold, the Lord YHWH will come with might, and His arm will rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work is before His face.

11 Like a shepherd He will pasture His flock; He gathers the lambs with His arm, and in His bosom He carries them, the nursing ones He leads.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a handspan, and has held the dust of the earth in a measure, and has weighed the mountains on a scale, and the hills in scales?

13 Who has directed the Spirit of YHWH, or informed Him as the man of His counsel?

14 With whom did he counsel, and who gave Him understanding and instructed Him in the path of justice? And who taught Him knowledge, and informed Him the way of understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and they have been reckoned like dust of the scales! Behold, the islands He lifts up like fine dust,

16 and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, and its beasts are not sufficient for a burnt offering.

17 All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are counted by Him as less than nothing and emptiness.

18 And to whom would you? liken God? And what likeness will you? arrange for Him?

19 To an idol a craftsman casts, and a metalworker overlays it with gold and fits with chains of silver?

20 One bereft of a contribution chooses a tree not rotten, and a skillful craftsman seeks out for himself to prepare a carved image that will not topple?

21 Do you? not know? Have you? not heard? Has it not been declared from the beginning to you?? Have you? not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22 He is sitting above the circle of the earth, and its dwellers are like grasshoppers; He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and He spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.

23 The One giving the rulers to nothingness, He makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24 Yes, they are hardly planted; yes, they are hardly sown; Yes their stem has hardly taken root in the earth. And also He will blow on them, and they will wither, and the tempest will carry them off like the stubble.

25 “And to whom will you? liken Me? Or who is My equal?” Says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your? eyes on high and see who has created these things—the One having brought forth by number their host. He calls to them all by name; by the greatness of might and the strength of power, not one is missing.