Isaiah 40

1 “Be consoled, be consoled, O my people!” says your God.

Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God.

2 Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.

Bid Jerusalem take heart, and proclaim unto her, that her time of service is accomplished, that her guilt is paid off; that she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

3 The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight the paths of our God, in a solitary place.

Hark! one calleth: 'Clear ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make plain in the desert a highway for our God.

4 Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be straightened, and the uneven will become level ways.

Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the rugged shall be made level, and the rough places a plain;

5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all flesh together will see that the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.'

6 The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

Hark! one saith: 'Proclaim!' And he saith: 'What shall I proclaim?' 'All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field;

7 The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. For the Spirit of the Lord has blown over it. Truly, the people are like grass.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the LORD bloweth upon it — surely the people is grass.

8 The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. But the Word of our Lord remains for eternity.”

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.'

9 You who evangelize Zion, climb a high mountain! You who evangelize Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah: “Behold, your God!”

O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain; O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah: 'Behold your God!'

10 Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.

Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a Mighty One, and His arm will rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.

11 He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.

Even as a shepherd that feedeth his flock, that gathereth the lambs in his arm, and carrieth them in his bosom, and gently leadeth those that give suck.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers, and who has weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a scale?

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

13 Who has assisted the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor and has revealed things to him?

Who hath meted out the spirit of the LORD? Or who was His counsellor that he might instruct Him?

14 With whom has he consulted? And who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and guided him to knowledge, and revealed the way of understanding to him?

With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of right, and taught Him knowledge, and made Him to know the way of discernment?

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a bucket, and they are considered as the smallest grain on a balance. Behold, the islands are like a little dust.

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold the isles are as a mote in weight.

16 And Lebanon will not be sufficient to start a fire, and its animals will not be sufficient for a burnt offering.

And Lebanon is not sufficient fuel, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for burnt-offerings.

17 All the nations in his sight are as if they did not exist, and they are considered by him as if they were nothingness and emptiness.

All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are accounted by Him as things of nought, and vanity.

18 Therefore, to whom would you liken God? Or with what image would you replace him?

To whom then will ye liken God? Or what likeness will ye compare unto Him?

19 Should the workman cast a statue? Or has the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?

The image perchance, which the craftsman hath melted, and the goldsmith spread over with gold, the silversmith casting silver chains?

20 He has chosen strong wood that will not decay. The skillful artisan seeks a way to set up an idol that cannot be moved.

A holm-oak is set apart, he chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning craftsman to set up an image, that shall not be moved.

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

Know ye not? hear ye not? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood the foundations of the earth?

22 He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell.

It is He that sitteth above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;

23 He has brought those who examine what is secret to nothingness. He has brought the judges of the earth to emptiness.

That bringeth princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as a thing of nought.

24 And certainly, their stalk was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the ground. He has suddenly blown across them, and they have withered, and a whirlwind will carry them away like chaff.

Scarce are they planted, scarce are they sown, scarce hath their stock taken root in the earth; when He bloweth upon them, they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.

25 “And to whom would you compare me or equate me?” says the Holy One.

To whom then will ye liken Me, that I should be equal? saith the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. He leads forth their army by number, and he calls them all by name. Because of the fullness of his strength and robustness and virtue, not one of them was left behind.

Lift up your eyes on high, and see: who hath created these? He that bringeth out their host by number, He calleth them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in power, not one faileth.

27 Why do you say this, O Jacob, and why do you speak this way, O Israel? “My way has been hidden from the Lord, and my judgment escaped notice by my God.”

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: 'My way is hid from the LORD, and my right is passed over from my God'?

28 Do you not know, or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, who has created the limits of the earth. He does not diminish, and he does not struggle. Neither is his wisdom searchable.

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? His discernment is past searching out.

29 It is he who gives strength to the weary, and it is he who increases fortitude and strength in those who are failing.

He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might He increaseth strength.

30 Servants will struggle and fail, and young men will fall into infirmity.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall;

31 But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will take up wings like eagles. They will run and not struggle. They will walk and not tire.

But they that wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.