Isaiah 40

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

2. “Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.”

3. A voice is calling out in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain;

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

6. A voice says, “Cry!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all the beauty of it is as the flower of the field.

7. The grass withers, the flower fades because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.

8. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall stand forever.”

9. Go up for yourself on the high mountain; O you that bring good tidings to Zion. Lift up your voice with strength, O you who tell good tidings to Jerusalem; lift up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

10. Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.

11. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those with young.

12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span? And who has comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

13. Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, and who was His counselor that he might instruct Him?

14. With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and made known the way of understanding to Him?

15. Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the scales; behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing.

16. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts of it sufficient for a burnt offering.

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

18. To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?

19. The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.

20. He who is too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks for a skillful workman for himself to prepare a graven image that will not totter.

21. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

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

23. Who brings the rulers to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity.

24. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, then He shall blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away like stubble.

25. “To whom then will you compare Me, or who is My equal?” says the Holy One.

26. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, Who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number? He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one fails.

27. Why do you say, O Jacob, and O Israel you speak, “My way is hidden from the LORD and my cause is disregarded by my God?”

28. Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary? And His understanding no one can fathom.

29. He gives power to the weary; and to him with no might, He increases strength.

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

31. But those who wait upon 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.