Isaiah 40
New Catholic Bible
The Book of Consolation[a]
The Lord’s Majesty in Israel’s Liberation[b]
Chapter 40
Salvation of the Lord[c]
1 Comfort my people and console them,
says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem
and proclaim to her
that her time of servitude is over
and that her guilt has been expiated.
Indeed she has received from the Lord’s hand
double punishment for all her sins.
3 A voice cries out:
In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make a straight path in the desert for our God.
4 Let every valley be filled in
and every mountain and hill be made low.
Uneven ground will be made smooth
and the rugged places will become a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all mankind will see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
I reply, “What shall I cry out?”
“All mortals are grass;
they last no longer than the flowers of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the Lord falls upon them.
Surely the people are grass.
8 The grass may wither and the flower may fade,
but the word of our God will endure forever.”
9 Climb to the top of a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings.
Cry out as loudly as you can,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news.
Lift up your voice without fear
and proclaim to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10 See the Lord God approaching with power,
he who rules with his powerful arm.
His reward is with him
and his recompense[d] is before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
and in his arms he will gather the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom
and gently leading the pregnant ewes to water.
The Creator’s Power To Save His People
12 Who has measured the waters of the sea
in the hollow of his hand,
or marked off the heavens
with the breadth of his hand?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord?
What counselor dared to instruct him?
14 Whom did he consult to gain enlightenment?
Who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge
or showed him the way of understanding?
15 In his eyes the nations are
like a drop in a bucket,
like dust on the scales.
To him coasts and islands[e]
weigh no more than fine dust,
16 Lebanon would not supply enough wood for fuel,
nor are its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as naught in his sight;
he reckons them as nothing and void.
18 To whom then will you compare God?
To what image can you liken him?
19 Perhaps an idol that a craftsman casts
and a goldsmith overlays with gold
and for which he fashions silver chains?
20 Or should mulberry wood be chosen,
a wood that will not rot,
and then a skilled artisan be designated
to fashion an idol that will not fall over?
21 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Were you not told from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?
22 God sits enthroned above the vault of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy
and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
23 He brings princes to naught
and reduces the rulers of the earth to nothing.
24 Scarcely have crops been planted or sown,
scarcely have their stems taken root in the ground,
before he breathes on them and they wither,
and storm winds carry them off like chaff.
25 To whom then can you compare me,
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes to the heavens.
Who created these things?
He leads forth their host and numbers them,
summoning them all by name.[f]
Because of his mighty power and great strength,
not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
the Creator of the earth’s farthest boundaries.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding cannot be scrutinized.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and new vigor to those who are powerless.
30 Even though young men faint and grow weary
and youths stumble and fall,
31 those who place their hope in the Lord
will regain their strength.
They will soar as with eagles’ wings,
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not become faint.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 40:1 Over a century had passed since the death of Isaiah. The Jewish people had lost their independence. The process of decline seemed irreversible. Jerusalem fell in 587 B.C., and then came the Exile. Beginning in 550 B.C., a new people entered the scene in the Near East. They were not Semitic but Aryan; they were the Persians and were led by a man who would make history: Cyrus. Within ten years, he made the East subject to him; to the peoples who had been oppressed, crushed, and deported by the Babylonians, he appeared as a liberator. From that point on, stories, oracles, and songs began to appear among the exiled Hebrews that extolled God’s work in the history of the world. The time was now past in which idols held sway; they saw the true God, the only God, in control of events that were leading to the salvation and liberation of his people. This noble idea of God and this new hope of deliverance burst forth in the “Book of Consolation,” which is also known as Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah (chs. 40–55).
In 539 B.C. Babylon fell. Cyrus gave the Israelites leave to return to their homeland and practice their own religion. The most religious among the Jews began to think that the time of the “new covenant” or “new testament” announced by the prophets (Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:26) had arrived. Should they perhaps see in Cyrus the Lord’s messenger, a “messiah?” But God’s Messenger, who would complete his work, was not Cyrus, although Cyrus was a glorious figure in human history. It would be necessary to wait for this Messenger to come in a humbler form, that of a just man who expiates by his own suffering for the sins of all humanity. Thus, amid the cries of hope for a new Exodus, there is already present a purer expectation: the expectation of God’s authentic Messenger, whose portrait is sketched in the four “Servant Songs.” - Isaiah 40:1 A minority among the deportees has reflected on Israel’s extraordinary history: Is it possible that God formerly delivered his people by so many miracles only to see the whole process end in exile? In light of Cyrus’ dazzling military sweep, the idea was born that a new Exodus was on the way, an exodus even more marvelous than the liberation from Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land.
- Isaiah 40:1 From the very outset, this second part of the Book of Isaiah has a new tone: that of consolation. An unknown prophet arises in the night of exile. He realizes that God now speaks of love and forgiveness and will never again change his language. The prophet’s most obvious call is to speak to his people about the strength and tenderness of God’s love for them. The day will come when the voice will be that of John the Precursor, who will lead his fellow countrymen on the path of conversion and open the way for Christ.
- Isaiah 40:10 Recompense: the liberation of the people.
- Isaiah 40:15 Islands: the Mediterranean archipelagoes and, in general, the distant lands.
- Isaiah 40:26 To call by name is a sign of mastery.
