Isaiah 40
GOD’S WORD Translation
Comfort My People
40 “Comfort my people! Comfort them!” says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and announce to it
that its time of hard labor is over
and its wrongs have been paid for.
It has received from the Lord double for all its sins.”
3 A voice cries out in the desert:
“Clear a way for the Lord.
Make a straight highway in the wilderness for our God.
4 Every valley will be raised.
Every mountain and hill will be lowered.
Steep places will be made level.
Rough places will be made smooth.
5 Then the Lord’s glory will be revealed
and all people will see it together.
The Lord has spoken.”
6 A voice called, “Call out!”
I asked, “What should I call out?”
“Call out: All people are like grass,
and all their beauty is like a flower in the field.
7 Grass dries up,
and flowers wither when the Lord’s breath blows on them.
Yes, people are like grass.
8 Grass dries up,
and flowers wither,
but our God’s word will last forever.”
9 Go up a high mountain, Zion.
Tell the good news!
Call out with a loud voice, Jerusalem.
Tell the good news!
Raise your voice without fear.
Tell the cities of Judah:
“Here is your God!”
10 The Almighty Lord is coming with power
to rule with authority.
His reward is with him,
and the people he has won arrive ahead of him.
11 Like a shepherd he takes care of his flock.
He gathers the lambs in his arms.
He carries them in his arms.
He gently helps the sheep and their lambs.
God Gives Strength to Those Who Depend on Him
12 Who has measured the water of the sea [a] with the palm of his hand
or measured the sky with the length of his hand?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a bushel basket
or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills on a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord
or instructed him as his adviser?
14 Whom did he consult?
Who gave him understanding?
Who taught him the right way?
Who taught him knowledge?
Who informed him about the way to understanding?
15 The nations are like a drop in a bucket
and are considered to be like dust on a scale.
The weight of the islands is like fine dust.
16 All the trees in Lebanon are not enough to burn an offering.
Its wild animals are not enough for a single burnt offering.
17 All the nations amount to nothing in his presence.
He considers them less than nothing and worthless.
18 To whom, then, can you compare God?
To what statue can you compare him?
19 Craftsmen make idols.
Goldsmiths cover them with gold.
Silversmiths make silver chains for them.
20 The poorest people choose wood that will not rot
and search out skillful craftsmen
to set up idols that will not fall over.
21 Don’t you know?
Haven’t you heard?
Haven’t you been told from the beginning?
Don’t you understand the foundations of the earth?
22 God is enthroned above the earth,
and those who live on it are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the sky like a canopy
and spreads it out like a tent to live in.
23 He makes rulers unimportant
and makes earthly judges worth nothing.
24 They have hardly been planted.
They have hardly been sown.
They have hardly taken root in the ground.
Then he blows on them and they wither,
and a windstorm sweeps them away like straw.
25 “To whom, then, can you compare me?
Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
26 Look at the sky and see.
Who created these things?
Who brings out the stars one by one?
He calls them all by name.
Because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power,
not one of them is missing.
27 Jacob, why do you complain?
Israel, why do you say,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my rights are ignored by my God”?
28 Don’t you know?
Haven’t you heard?
The eternal God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
doesn’t grow tired or become weary.
His understanding is beyond reach.
29 He gives strength to those who grow tired
and increases the strength of those who are weak.
30 Even young people grow tired and become weary,
and young men will stumble and fall.
31 Yet, the strength of those who wait with hope in the Lord
will be renewed.
They will soar on wings like eagles.
They will run and won’t become weary.
They will walk and won’t grow tired.
Footnotes
- 40:12 Dead Sea Scrolls; Masoretic Text “Who has measured the water.”
Isaiah 40
Wycliffe Bible
40 My people, be ye comforted, be ye comforted, saith your Lord God. (My people, be ye comforted, yea, be ye comforted, saith the Lord your God.)
2 Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call ye [to] it, for the malice thereof is [ful]filled, the wickedness thereof is forgiven; it hath received of the hand of the Lord double things for all his sins (it hath received from the hand of the Lord double for all of its sins).
3 The voice of a crier in desert [The voice of the (one) crying in (the) desert], Make ye ready the way of the Lord, make ye rightful the paths of our God in wilderness. (The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make ye right the paths in the desert for our God.)
4 Each valley shall be enhanced, and each mountain and little hill shall be made low; and shrewd things shall be into straight things, and sharp things shall be into plane ways. (Each valley shall be lifted up, and each mountain and little hill shall be made low; and depraved, or crooked, ways shall be made into straight ways, and sharp places shall be made into smooth places.)
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be showed, and each man shall see together, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken. (And the glory of the Lord shall be shown, and all the people shall see it together, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.)
6 The voice of God, saying, Cry thou. And I said, What shall I cry? Each flesh is hay, and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field. (The voice of God, saying, Cry thou. And I said, What shall I cry? And he saith, Each person is but a blade of grass, and all their life lasteth no longer than a flower in the field.)
7 The hay is dried up, and the flower fell down, for the spirit of the Lord blew therein. Verily the people is hay; (And the grass drieth up, and the flower falleth down, because the wind of the Lord bloweth there. Truly the people be but grass;)
8 the hay is dried up, and the flower fell down; but the word of the Lord dwelleth, either shall stand, without end. (and the grass drieth up, and the flower falleth down; but the word of the Lord shall stand forever.)
9 Thou that preachest to Zion, go upon an high hill; thou that preachest to Jerusalem, enhance thy voice in strength; enhance thou, do not thou dread; say thou to the cities of Judah, Lo! your God. (Thou who preachest to Zion, go up on a high mountain; thou who preachest to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; yea, lift thou it up, do not thou fear; say thou to the cities of Judah, Lo! your God.)
10 Lo! the Lord God shall come in strength, and his arm shall hold lordship; lo! his meed is with him, and his work is before him (lo! his reward is with him, and his work is in front of him).
11 As a shepherd he shall feed his flock, he shall gather [the] lambs in(to) his arm(s), and he shall raise (them up) in(to) his bosom; he shall bear [the] sheep with lamb. (Like a shepherd he shall feed his flock, he shall gather the lambs into his arms, and he shall raise them up into his bosom; he shall gently lead the sheep that be with their young.)
12 Who meted waters in a fist, and weighed (the) heavens with a span? Who weighed the heaviness of the earth with three fingers, and weighed [the] mountains in a weigh, and [the] little hills in a balance? (Who hath measured the waters with his fist, and weighed the heavens with the span of his hand? Who hath weighed the heaviness of the earth with three fingers, and weighed the mountains on a scale, and the little hills on a balance?)
13 Who helped the Spirit of the Lord, either who was his counsellor, and showed to him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who learned him, and taught him the path of rightfulness, and learned him in knowing, and showed to him the way of prudence?
15 Lo! folks be as a drop of a bucket, and be areckoned as the tongue of a balance; lo! isles be as a little dust, (Lo! the nations be like a drop from a bucket, and be reckoned like the tongue of a balance; lo! the islands weigh but like a little dust,)
16 and the Lebanon shall not suffice to burn his sacrifice, and the beasts thereof shall not suffice to (a) burnt sacrifice. (and even all the mighty trees of Lebanon shall not suffice to burn his sacrifice, and even all its beasts shall not suffice for a burnt sacrifice.)
17 All folks be so before him, as if they be not; and they be reckoned as nothing and (as a) vain thing to him. (All the nations before him, be as if they be not; and they be reckoned as if they be nothing, yea, but like an empty and futile thing to him.)
18 To whom therefore made ye God like? either what image shall ye set to him (for comparison)?
19 Whether a smith shall weld together an image, either a goldsmith shall figure it in gold, and a worker in silver shall dight it with pieces of silver?
20 A wise craftsman choose(th) a strong tree, and unable to be rotten; he seeketh how he shall ordain a simulacrum, that shall not be moved.
21 Whether ye know not? whether ye heard not? whether it was not told to you from the beginning? whether ye understood not (from) the foundaments of [the] earth?
22 Which sitteth on the compass of [the] earth, and the dwellers thereof be as locusts; which stretcheth forth heavens as nought, and spreadeth abroad those as a tabernacle to dwell (in). (It is he who sitteth above, or over, the roundness of the earth, and its inhabitants be like grasshoppers; it is he who stretcheth forth the heavens like a curtain, and spreadeth them abroad like a tent to live in.)
23 Which giveth the searchers of privates, as if they be not, and [he] made the judges of [the] earth as a vain thing. (Who bringeth down the great, as if they be nothing, and who made the judges, or the rulers, of the earth but like an empty and futile thing to him.)
24 And soothly when the stock of them is neither planted, neither is sown, neither is rooted in [the] earth, he blew suddenly on them, and they dried up, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. (And truly when their stock is neither planted, nor is sown, nor is rooted in the earth, he shall suddenly blow on them, and they shall all be dried up, and then a whirlwind shall take them away like stubble.)
25 And to what thing have ye likened me, and have made [me] even (to)? saith the Holy (One).
26 Raise [up] your eyes on high, and see ye, who made these things of nought; which leadeth out in number the knighthood of them, and calleth all by name, for the multitude of his strength, and stalworthness, and might; neither one residue thing was. (Raise up your eyes on high, and see ye, who made these things out of nothing; who leadeth their host out in number, and calleth all of them by name, for the multitude of his strength, and stalwartness, and might, and not one of them is missing.)
27 Why sayest thou, Jacob, and speakest thou, Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my doom (is) passed (over) from my God? (Why sayest thou, Jacob, yea, why sayest thou, Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my cause is no longer God’s concern?)
28 Whether thou knowest not, either heardest thou not? God, everlasting Lord, that made of nought the ends of [the] earth, shall not fail, neither shall travail, neither ensearching of his wisdom is. (Knowest thou not, or heardest thou not? God, the everlasting Lord, who made the ends of the earth out of nothing, shall not faint, nor grow tired, and there is no one who understandeth his wisdom.)
29 That giveth strength to the weary, and strength to them that be not, and multiplieth stalworthness. (He who giveth strength to the weary, and strength to those who have it not, and multiplieth stalwartness.)
30 (Some) Young men shall fail, and shall travail, and (other) young men shall fall down in their sickness.
31 But they that hope in the Lord, shall change strength, they shall take feathers as eagles; they shall run, and shall not travail; they shall go, and shall not fail. (But they who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall grow wings like eagles; they shall run, and shall not labour, or struggle; they shall go, and shall not faint.)
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2001 by Terence P. Noble