# Isaiah 40

> Lumin Translation

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/read/isaiah/40

Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.

How it was made: https://www.lumin.faith/lumin-translation.md

1. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2. Speak 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.
3. A voice is calling out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of Yahweh; in the desert make a straight highway for our God.
4. Every 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.
5. Yahweh’s glory will be unveiled, and all people will see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”
6. A 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.
7. The grass withers and the flower falls, because the breath of Yahweh blows on it; truly, the people are grass.
8. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God endures forever.”
9. Climb 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!”
10. See, 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.
11. Like 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.
12. Who 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?
13. Who has taken the measure of the Spirit of Yahweh, or as his counselor has instructed him?
14. With 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?
15. Look, 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.
16. Lebanon would not give enough to burn, nor its wild animals enough for a burnt offering.
17. Next to him all the nations are as if they did not exist; he considers them less than nothing, mere emptiness.
18. So to whom will you liken God? What image will you set up to match him?
19. An idol? A metalworker pours it, a smith coats it with gold and forges silver chains for it.
20. Someone 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.
21. Do you not know? Are you not listening? Were you not told from the start? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22. He 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.
23. He reduces rulers to nothing and turns the earth’s judges into a void.
24. No 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.
25. To whom, then, will you liken me, as though I were his equal? says the Holy One.
26. Raise 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.
27. Why do you say, Jacob, why do you insist, Israel, “My way is hidden from Yahweh, and my God has let my case slip by”?
28. Have 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.
29. He gives strength to the tired and multiplies the might of those who have no power.
30. Even boys tire and wear out, and young men stumble and collapse,
31. but 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.

## Nearby chapters

[Isaiah 39](https://www.lumin.faith/read/isaiah/39.md)
[Isaiah 41](https://www.lumin.faith/read/isaiah/41.md)

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