Isaiah 40
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her service is over, that her guilt has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
3 A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make a straight highway in the desert for our God.
4 Every valley will be raised, and every mountain and hill brought low; the rough ground will become level, and the cliffs a valley.
5 The glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all humanity will see it together, because the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
6 A voice says, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like a flower in the field.
7 The grass dries up, the flower withers, because the wind of the LORD blows on it. Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass dries up, the flower withers, but the word of our God stands forever.
9 Go up a high mountain, Zion, herald of good news; raise your voice with strength, Jerusalem, herald of good news. Raise it, do not be afraid; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”
10 Look: the Lord GOD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. Look: his reward is with him, and his payment goes before him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd; with his arm he gathers the lambs and carries them close to his chest; he gently leads those nursing their young.
12 Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span? Who gathered the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains on scales and the hills on a balance?
13 Who measured the Spirit of the LORD, or instructed him as a man of his counsel?
14 With whom did he consult, so that they could make him understand and teach him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?
15 Look: the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are regarded as dust on the scales. Look: he lifts the islands like fine grains.
16 Lebanon is not enough for the fire, nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him; he regards them as less than nothing, as emptiness.
18 To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you set beside him?
19 The craftsman casts an idol, the goldsmith covers it with gold and forges silver chains.
20 Someone too poor to make that offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skilled craftsman to make an idol that will not topple.
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the foundations of the earth?
22 He is the one who sits above the circle of the earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers; he stretches out the heavens like a veil and spreads them like a tent to live in.
23 He brings rulers to nothing and makes the judges of the earth mere emptiness.
24 Scarcely planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their trunk taken root in the ground, when he blows on them and they dry up; the storm carries them off like straw.
25 “To whom, then, will you compare me, that I should be his equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes on high and see: who created these things? The one who brings out their host, each one counted, calls them all by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is overlooked by my God”?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary; his understanding cannot be measured.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the might of those who have none.
30 Young men grow tired and weary, and youths stumble and fall.
31 But those who wait for the LORD renew their strength; they rise on wings like eagles; they run and do not grow weary, they walk and do not grow tired.
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