Isaiah 40

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

Comfort you, comfort you my people, says 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.

Speak, you priests, to the heart of Jerusalem; comfort her, for her humiliation is accomplished, her sin is put away: for she has received of the Lord's hand double [the amount of] 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.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of 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 filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and all the crooked [ways] shall become straight, and the rough [places] plains.

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 appear, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God: for the Lord has 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.

The voice of one saying, Cry; and I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass:

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.

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

The grass withers, and the flower fades: but the word of our God abides 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 you that bring glad tidings to Zion, go up on the high mountain; lift up your voice with strength, you that bring glad tidings to Jerusalem; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Juda, 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! The Lord is coming with strength, and [his] arm is with power: behold, his reward is with him, and [his] work 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.

He shall tend his flock as a shepherd, and he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and shall soothe them that are with young.

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 has measured the water in his hand, and the heaven with a span, and all the earth in a handful? Who has weighed the mountains in scales, and the forests 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 has known the mind of the Lord? and who has been his counsellor, to 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?

Or with whom has he taken counsel, and he has instructed him? or who has taught him judgment, or who has taught him the way of understanding;

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.

since all the nations are counted as a drop from a bucket, and as the turning of a balance, [and] shall be counted as spittle?

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

And Libanus is not enough to burn, nor all beasts enough for a whole burnt offering:

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.

and all the nations are as nothing, and counted as nothing.

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

To whom have you compared the Lord? and with what likeness have you compared him?

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

Has not the artificer made an image, or the goldsmith having melted gold, gilt it over, [and] made it a similitude?

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.

For the artificer chooses out a wood that will not rot, and will wisely enquire how he shall set up his image, and [that so] that it should 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?

Will you not know? will you not hear? has it not been told you of old? Have you not known 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 comprehends the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants in it are as grasshoppers; he that set up the heaven as a chamber, and stretched [it] 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.

he that appoints princes to rule as nothing, and has made the earth as nothing.

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.

For they shall not plant, neither shall they sow, neither shall their root be fixed in the ground: he has blown upon them, and they are withered, and a storm shall carry them away like sticks.

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

Now then to whom have you compared me, that I may be exalted? says 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 has displayed all these things? [even] he that brings forth his host by number: he shall call them all by name by [means of his] great glory, and by the power of his might: nothing has escaped you.

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.”

For say not you, O Jacob, and why have you spoken, Israel, [saying], My way is hid from God, and my God has taken away [my] judgement, and has departed?

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.

And now, have you not known? have you not heard? the eternal God, the God that formed the ends of the earth, shall not hunger, nor be weary, and there is no searching of his understanding.

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 gives strength to the hungry, and sorrow to them that are not suffering.

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

For the young [men] shall hunger, and the youths shall be weary, and the choice [men] shall be powerless:

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 on God shall renew [their] strength; they shall put forth new feathers like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not hunger.