Isaiah 40

1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2Speak to Jerusalem’s heart and announce to her that her term of hard service is complete, that her guilt has been paid off, that she has received from Yahweh’s hand twice over for all her sins.

3A voice is calling out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of Yahweh; in the desert make a straight highway for our God.

4Every valley will be raised, and every mountain and hill will be made low; the rough ground will become flat, and the ridges a broad valley.

5Yahweh’s glory will be unveiled, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

6A voice says, “Call out!” And someone asks, “What am I to call out?” “All people are grass, and all their loyalty is like a flower of the field.

7The grass withers and the flower falls, because the breath of Yahweh blows on it; truly, the people are grass.

8The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God endures forever.”

9Climb up onto a high mountain, Zion, messenger of good news! Raise your voice with power, Jerusalem, messenger of good news! Raise it, and do not be afraid; tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is here!”

10See, Lord Yahweh is coming in strength, his arm ruling on his behalf. See, his reward comes with him, and the wages he pays go before him.

11Like a shepherd he will pasture his flock; he will collect the lambs in his arm and carry them against his chest, and with care he will guide the ewes that are nursing.

12Who has measured out the waters in his cupped hand, laid out the heavens with a hand’s span, gathered the dust of the earth into a measure, and weighed mountains on a scale and hills on balances?

13Who has taken the measure of the Spirit of Yahweh, or as his counselor has instructed him?

14With whom did he take counsel to gain insight? Who instructed him in the way of justice, taught him knowledge, and made the path of understanding known to him?

15Look, nations are like a drop hanging from a bucket, reckoned as a speck of dust on the scales; look, he picks up the islands as if they were fine powder.

16Lebanon would not give enough to burn, nor its wild animals enough for a burnt offering.

17Next to him all the nations are as if they did not exist; he considers them less than nothing, mere emptiness.

18So to whom will you liken God? What image will you set up to match him?

19An idol? A metalworker pours it, a smith coats it with gold and forges silver chains for it.

20Someone too poor for such a gift picks out wood that will not decay and hunts for a clever craftsman to make an idol that will not totter.

21Do you not know? Are you not listening? Were you not told from the start? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

22He sits enthroned over the earth’s circle, and those who live on it are like grasshoppers. He spreads the heavens out like a thin cloth and stretches them like a tent to live in.

23He reduces rulers to nothing and turns the earth’s judges into a void.

24No sooner are they planted, no sooner sown, no sooner has their stalk put roots into the ground, than he breathes on them and they dry up, and a storm sweeps them away like stubble.

25To whom, then, will you liken me, as though I were his equal? says the Holy One.

26Raise your eyes to the heights and look: who created these? He brings out their ranks in full number and calls every one of them by name; so great is his might and so strong his power that not one is missing.

27Why do you say, Jacob, why do you insist, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and my God has let my case slip by”?

28Have you not known it? Have you not heard it? Yahweh is the eternal God, Creator of the earth’s far ends. He does not tire or wear out; there is no fathoming his understanding.

29He gives strength to the tired and multiplies the might of those who have no power.

30Even boys tire and wear out, and young men stumble and collapse,

31but those who wait in hope for Yahweh will draw fresh strength. They will rise on pinions like eagles; they will run and not wear out; they will walk and not tire.