Isaiah - Chapter 40

¹ 'Console my people, console them,' says your God.

² 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her period of service is ended, that her guilt has been atoned for, that, from the hand of Yahweh, she has received double punishment for all her sins.'

³ A voice cries, 'Prepare in the desert a way for Yahweh. Make a straight highway for our God across the wastelands.

⁴ Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, every cliff become a plateau, every escarpment a plain;

⁵ then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and all humanity will see it together, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.'

⁶ A voice said, 'Cry aloud!' and I said, 'What shall I cry?' -'All humanity is grass and all its beauty like the wild flower's.

⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of Yahweh blows on them. (The grass is surely the people.)

⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains for ever.'

⁹ Go up on a high mountain, messenger of Zion. Shout as loud as you can, messenger of Jerusalem! Shout fearlessly, say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God.'

¹⁰ Here is Lord Yahweh coming with power, his arm maintains his authority, his reward is with him and his prize precedes him.

¹¹ He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

¹² Who was it measured the water of the sea in the hollow of his hand and calculated the heavens to the nearest inch, gauged the dust of the earth to the nearest bushel, weighed the mountains in scales, the hills in a balance?

¹³ Who directed the spirit of Yahweh, what counsellor could have instructed him?

¹⁴ Whom has he consulted to enlighten him, to instruct him in the path of judgement, to teach him knowledge and show him how to understand?

¹⁵ See, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count as a grain of dust on the scales. See, coasts and islands weigh no more than fine powder.

¹⁶ The Lebanon is not enough for the burning fires nor its animals enough for the burnt offering.

¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him, for him they count as nothingness and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom can you compare God? What image can you contrive of him?

¹⁹ The craftsman casts an idol, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it.

²⁰ Someone too poor to afford a sacrifice chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he then seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not totter.

²¹ Did you not know, had you not heard? Was it not told you from the beginning? Have you not understood how the earth was set on its foundations?

²² He who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants of which are like grasshoppers, stretches out the heavens like a cloth, spreads them out like a tent to live in.

²³ He reduces princes to nothing, the rulers of the world to mere emptiness.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the soil, than he blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like chaff.

²⁵ 'To whom can you compare me, or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.

²⁶ Lift your eyes and look: he who created these things leads out their army in order, summoning each of them by name. So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.

²⁷ How can you say, Jacob, how can you repeat, Israel, 'My way is hidden from Yahweh, my rights are ignored by my God'?

²⁸ Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, he created the remotest parts of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary, he strengthens the powerless.

³⁰ Youths grow tired and weary, the young stumble and fall,

³¹ but those who hope in Yahweh will regain their strength, they will sprout wings like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary, though they walk they will never tire.

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