| 40 | Isaiah | ||
| 1 | Comfort, comfort my people ; — it is the voice of your God; | ISAIAH 2. (The Exile). Words of hope. Is.40.1-11 (Babylon) - 549bce | |
| 2 | speak tenderly to Jerusalem and tell her this, that she has fulfilled her term of bondage, that her penalty is paid; she has received at the LORD's hand double measure for all her sins. | ||
| 3 | There is a voice that cries: Prepare a road for the LORD through the wilderness, clear a highway across the desert for our God. | ||
| 4 | Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill brought down; rugged places shall be made smooth and mountain-ranges become a plain. | ||
| 5 | Thus shall the glory of the LORD be revealed, and all mankind together. shall see it; for the LORD himself has spoken. | ||
| 6 | A voice says, 'Cry', and another asks, 'What shall I cry?' 'That all mankind is grass, they last no longer than a flower of the field. | ||
| 7 | The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon them ; | ||
| 8 | the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God endures for evermore.' | ||
| 9 | You who bring Zion good news , up with you to the mountain-top; lift up your voice and shout, you who bring good news to Jerusalem , lift it up fearlessly; cry to the cities of Judah, 'Your God is here.' | ||
| 10 | Here is the Lord GOD coming in might, coming to rule with his right arm. His recompense comes with him, he carries his reward before him. | ||
| 11 | He will tend his flock like a shepherd and gather them together with his arm; he will carry the lambs in his bosom and lead the ewes to water. | ||
| 12 | Who has gauged the waters in the palm of his hand, or with its span set limits to the heavens? Who has held all the soil of earth in a bushel, or weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a pair of scales? | The LORD of the universe. Is.40.12-31 | |
| 13 | Who has set limits to the spirit of the LORD? What counsellor stood at his side to instruct him? | ||
| 14 | With whom did he confer to gain discernment? Who taught him how to do justice or gave him lessons in wisdom? | ||
| 15 | Why, to him nations are but drops from a bucket, no more than moisture on the scales; coasts and islands weigh as light as specks of dust. | ||
| 16 | All Lebanon does not yield wood enough for fuel or beasts enough for a sacrifice. | ||
| 17 | All nations dwindle to nothing before him, he reckons them mere nothings, less than nought. | ||
| 18 | What likeness will you find for God or what form to resemble his? | ||
| 19 | Is it an image which a craftsman sets up, and a goldsmith covers with plate and fits with studs of silver as a costly gift? | ||
| 20 | Or is it mulberry-wood that will not rot which a man chooses, seeking out a skilful craftsman for it, to mount an image that will not fall? | ||
| 21 | Do you not know, have you not heard, were you not told long ago, have you not perceived ever since the world began, | ||
| 22 | that God sits throned on the vaulted roof of earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers ? He stretches out the skies like a curtain, he spreads them out like a tent to live in; | ||
| 22 | he reduces the great to nothing and makes all earth's princes less than nothing. | ||
| 24 | Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely have they taken root in the earth, before he blows upon them and they wither away, and a whirlwind carries them off like chaff. | ||
| 25 | To whom then will you liken me, whom set up as my equal? asks the Holy One. | ||
| 26 | Lift up your eyes to the heavens; consider who created it all, led out their host one by one and called them all by their names; through his great might, his might and power, not one is missing. | ||
| 27 | Why do you complain, O Jacob, and you, Israel, why do you say, 'My plight is hidden from the LORD and my cause has passed out of God's notice'? | ||
| 28 | Do you not know, have you not heard? The LORD, the everlasting God, creator of the wide world, grows neither weary nor faint; no man can fathom his understanding. | ||
| 29 | He gives vigour to the weary, new strength to the exhausted. | ||
| 30 | Young men may grow weary and faint, even in their prime they may stumble and fall; | ||
| 31 | but those who look to the LORD will win new strength, they will grow wings like, eagles; they will run and not be weary, they will march on and never grow faint. | ||
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