Isaiah 40

¹Comfort , comfort my people , says your God .

²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem , and cry to her that her warfare is ended , that her iniquity is pardoned , that she has received from the Lord ’s hand double for all her sins .

³A voice cries : In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God .

⁴Every valley shall be lifted up , and every mountain and hill be made low ; the uneven ground shall become level , and the rough places a plain .

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

⁶A voice says , Cry ! And I said , What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass , and all its beauty is like the flower of the field .

⁷The grass withers , the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass .

⁸The grass withers , the flower fades , but the word of our God will stand forever .

⁹Go on up to a high mountain , O Zion , herald of good news ; lift up your voice with strength , O Jerusalem , herald of good news ; lift it up , fear not ; say to the cities of Judah , Behold your God !

¹⁰Behold , the Lord God comes with might , and his arm rules for him; behold , his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.

¹¹He will tend his flock like a shepherd ; he will gather the lambs in his arms ; he will carry them in his bosom , and gently lead those that are with young .

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span , enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance ?

¹³Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel ?

¹⁴Whom did he consult , and who made him understand ? Who taught him the path of justice , and taught him knowledge , and showed him the way of understanding ?

¹⁵Behold , the nations are like a drop from a bucket , and are accounted as the dust on the scales ; behold , he takes up the coastlands like fine dust .

¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel , nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering .

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

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God , or what likeness compare with him?

¹⁹An idol ! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains .

²⁰He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot ; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move .

²¹Do you not know ? Do you not hear ? Has it not been told you from the beginning ? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth ?

²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth , and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers ; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain , and spreads them like a tent to dwell in ;

²³who brings princes to nothing , and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness .

²⁴Scarcely are they planted , scarcely sown , scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth , when he blows on them, and they wither , and the tempest carries them off like stubble .

²⁵To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him ? says the Holy One .

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see : who created these ? He who brings out their host by number , calling them all by name , by the greatness of his might , and because he is strong in power not one is missing .

²⁷Why do you say , O Jacob , and speak , O Israel , My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God ?

²⁸Have you not known ? Have you not heard ? The Lord is the everlasting God , the Creator of the ends of the earth . He does not faint or grow weary ; his understanding is unsearchable .

²⁹He gives power to the faint , and to him who has no might he increases strength .

³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary , and young men shall fall exhausted ;

³¹but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings like eagles ; they shall run and not be weary ; they shall walk and not faint .