Isaiah 40

American Standard Version

40 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. ² Speak ye ^[a]comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her ^[b]warfare is accomplished, that her ^[c]iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.

³ The voice of one ^[d]that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain: ⁵ and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

⁶ The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. ⁸ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.

^9 [e]O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; ^[f]O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! ¹⁰ Behold, the Lord Jehovah 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, and will gently lead those that have their young.

¹² Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? ¹³ Who hath ^[g]directed the Spirit of Jehovah, or being his counsellor hath taught him? ¹⁴ With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? ¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: behold, ^[h]he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. ¹⁶ And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering. ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as ^[i]less than nothing, and ^[j]vanity.

¹⁸ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? ¹⁹ The image, a workman hath cast it, and the goldsmith overlayeth it with gold, and casteth for it silver chains. ²⁰ He that is too impoverished for such an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilful workman to ^[k]set up a graven image, that shall not be moved. ²¹ Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not ^[l]understood from the foundations of the earth? ²² It is he that sitteth above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as ^[m]a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; ²³ that bringeth princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the earth as ^[n]vanity. ^24 [o]Yea, they have not been planted; yea, they have not been sown; yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth: moreover he bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble. ²⁵ To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One. ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high, ^[p]and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.

²⁷ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and the justice due to me is passed away from my God? ²⁸ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? ^[q]The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. ²⁹ He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³¹ but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.