Isaiah 40:6-41:20

World English Bible

⁶ The voice of one saying, “Cry!”
    One said, “What shall I cry?”
“All flesh is like grass,
    and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers,
    the flower fades,
    because Yahweh’s breath blows on it.
    Surely the people are like grass.
⁸ The grass withers,
    the flower fades;
    but the word of our God stands forever.”

⁹ You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
    You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength!
    Lift it up! Don’t be afraid!
    Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”
¹⁰ Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one,
    and his arm will rule for him.
    Behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
    He will gather the lambs in his arm,
    and carry them in his bosom.
    He will gently lead those who have their young.

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
    and marked off the sky with his span,
    and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket,
    and weighed the mountains in scales,
    and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has directed Yahweh’s Spirit,
    or has taught him as his counselor?
¹⁴ Who did he take counsel with,
    and who instructed him,
    and taught him in the path of justice,
    and taught him knowledge,
    and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
    and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance.
    Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
¹⁶ Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
    nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are like nothing before him.
    They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God?
    Or what likeness will you compare to him?
¹⁹ A workman has cast an image,
    and the goldsmith overlays it with gold,
    and casts silver chains for it.
²⁰ He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot.
    He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.

²¹ Haven’t you known?
    Haven’t you heard?
    Haven’t you been told from the beginning?
    Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It 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 out like a tent to dwell in,
²³     who brings princes to nothing,
    who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
²⁴ They are planted scarcely.
    They are sown scarcely.
    Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
    He merely blows on them, and they wither,
    and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

²⁵ “To whom then will you liken me?
    Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high,
    and see who has created these,
    who brings out their army by number.
    He calls them all by name.
    by the greatness of his might,
    and because he is strong in power,
    not one is lacking.

²⁷ Why do you say, Jacob,
    and speak, Israel,
    “My way is hidden from Yahweh,
    and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”
²⁸ Haven’t you known?
    Haven’t you heard?
    The everlasting God, Yahweh,
    the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint.
    He isn’t weary.
    His understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the weak.
    He increases the strength of him who has no might.
³⁰ Even the youths faint and get weary,
    and the young men utterly fall;
³¹     but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.
    They will mount up with wings like eagles.
    They will run, and not be weary.
    They will walk, and not faint.

41 “Keep silent before me, islands,
    and let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near,
    then let them speak.
    Let’s meet together for judgment.
² Who has raised up one from the east?
    Who called him to his foot in righteousness?
    He hands over nations to him
    and makes him rule over kings.
    He gives them like the dust to his sword,
    like the driven stubble to his bow.
³ He pursues them
    and passes by safely,
    even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.
⁴ Who has worked and done it,
    calling the generations from the beginning?
    I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”

⁵ The islands have seen, and fear.
    The ends of the earth tremble.
    They approach, and come.
⁶ Everyone helps his neighbor.
    They say to their brothers, “Be strong!”
⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.
    He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil,
    saying of the soldering, “It is good;”
    and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

⁸ “But you, Israel, my servant,
    Jacob whom I have chosen,
    the offspring of Abraham my friend,
⁹     You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,
    and called from its corners,
    and said to you, ‘You are my servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’
¹⁰ Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.
    Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.
    I will strengthen you.
    Yes, I will help you.
    Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.
¹¹ Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded.
    Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.
¹² You will seek them, and won’t find them,
    even those who contend with you.
    Those who war against you will be as nothing,
    as a non-existent thing.
¹³ For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand,
    saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid.
    I will help you.’
¹⁴ Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob,
    and you men of Israel.
    I will help you,” says Yahweh.
    “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵ Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth.
    You will thresh the mountains,
    and beat them small,
    and will make the hills like chaff.
¹⁶ You will winnow them,
    and the wind will carry them away,
    and the whirlwind will scatter them.
You will rejoice in Yahweh.
    You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.
    Their tongue fails for thirst.
I, Yahweh, will answer them.
    I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
¹⁸ I will open rivers on the bare heights,
    and springs in the middle of the valleys.
    I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
    and the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹ I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness.
    I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;
²⁰     that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,
    that Yahweh’s hand has done this,
    and the Holy One of Israel has created it.