Chronological

40 “Comfort and keep comforting my people,” says your God.
² “Tell Yerushalayim to take heart; proclaim to her
that she has completed her time of service,
that her guilt has been paid off,
that she has received at the hand of Adonai
double for all her sins.”

³ A voice cries out:

“Clear a road through the desert for Adonai!
Level a highway in the ‘Aravah for our God!
⁴ Let every valley be filled in,
every mountain and hill lowered,
the bumpy places made level
and the crags become a plain.
⁵ Then the glory of Adonai will be revealed;
all humankind together will see it,
for the mouth of Adonai has spoken.”

⁶ A voice says, “Proclaim!”
And I answer, “What should I proclaim?”
“All humanity is merely grass,
all its kindness like wildflowers:
⁷ the grass dries up, the flower fades,
when a wind from Adonai blows on it.
Surely the people are grass!
⁸ The grass dries up, the flower fades;
but the word of our God will stand forever.”

⁹ You who bring good news to Tziyon,
get yourself up on a high mountain;
you who bring good news to Yerushalayim,
cry out at the top of your voice!
Don’t be afraid to shout out loud!
Say to the cities of Y’hudah,
“Here is your God!
¹⁰ Here comes Adonai Elohim with power,
and his arm will rule for him.
Look! His reward is with him,
and his recompense is before him.
¹¹ He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,
gathering his lambs with his arm,
carrying them against his chest,
gently leading the mother sheep.”

¹² Who has counted the handfuls of water in the sea,
measured off the sky with a ruler,
gauged how much dust there is on the earth,
weighed the mountains on scales, or the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has measured the Spirit of Adonai?
Who has been his counselor, instructing him?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult, to gain understanding?
Who taught him how to judge,
taught him what he needed to know,
showed him how to discern?

¹⁵ The nations are like a drop in a bucket,
they count like a grain of dust on the scales.
The islands weigh as little as specks of dust.
¹⁶ The L’vanon would not suffice for fuel
or its animals be enough for burnt offerings.
¹⁷ Before him all the nations are like nothing.
He regards them as less than nothing.

¹⁸ With whom, then, will you compare God?
By what standard will you evaluate him?
¹⁹ An image made by a craftsman,
which a goldsmith overlays with gold,
for which he then casts silver chains?
²⁰ A man too poor to afford an offering
chooses a piece of wood that won’t rot,
then seeks out a skilled artisan
to prepare an image that won’t fall over.

²¹ Don’t you know? Don’t you hear?
Haven’t you been told from the start?
Don’t you understand how the earth is set up?
²² He who sits above the circle of the earth —
for whom its inhabitants appear like grasshoppers —
stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
spreads them out like a tent to live in.
²³ He reduces princes to nothing,
the rulers of the earth to emptiness.
²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely their stem taken root in the ground,
when he blows on them, they dry up,
and the whirlwind carries them off like straw.
²⁵ “With whom, then, will you compare me?
With whom am I equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶ Turn your eyes to the heavens!
See who created these?
He brings out the army of them in sequence,
summoning each by name.
Through his great might and his massive strength,
not one of them is missing.

²⁷ Why do you complain, Ya‘akov;
why do you say, Isra’el,
“My way is hidden from Adonai,
my rights are ignored by my God”?
²⁸ Haven’t you known, haven’t you heard
that the everlasting God, Adonai,
the Creator of the ends of the earth,
does not grow tired or weary?
His understanding cannot be fathomed.
²⁹ He invigorates the exhausted,
he gives strength to the powerless.
³⁰ Young men may grow tired and weary,
even the fittest may stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in Adonai will renew their strength,
they will soar aloft as with eagles’ wings;
when they are running they won’t grow weary,
when they are walking they won’t get tired.

41 “Keep silence before me, coastlands!
Let the peoples replenish their strength!
Let them approach; then let them speak.
Let us assemble for judgment.”
² Who has raised from the east one who is just
and called him to be in his service?
He hands nations over to him
and subjects kings to him;
his sword reduces them to dust,
his bow to driven straw.
³ He pursues them, passing on unscathed,
hardly touching the path with his feet.
⁴ Whose work is this? Who has brought it about?
He who called the generations from the beginning,
“I, Adonai, am the first;
and I am the same with those who are last.”
⁵ The coastlands have seen and became afraid.
The ends of the earth have trembled.
They have approached, and now they have come.

⁶ Every one helps his fellow workman,
everyone says to his brother, “Be strong!”
⁷ The woodworker encourages the goldsmith,
the polisher encourages the hammerer;
he says of the soldering, “Yes, that’s good,”
then puts nails in [the idol] to keep it from moving.

⁸ “But you, Isra’el, my servant;
Ya‘akov, whom I have chosen,
descendants of Avraham my friend,
⁹ I have taken you from the ends of the earth,
summoned you from its most distant parts
and said to you, ‘You are my servant’ —
I have chosen you, not rejected you.
¹⁰ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you;
don’t be distressed, for I am your God.
I give you strength, I give you help,
I support you with my victorious right hand.
¹¹ All those who were angry with you
will be disgraced, put to shame;
those who fought against you
will be destroyed, brought to nothing.
¹² You will seek them but not find them,
those who contended with you;
yes, those who made war with you
will be brought to nothing, nothing at all.
¹³ For I, Adonai, your God,
say to you, as I hold your right hand,
‘Have no fear; I will help you.
¹⁴ Have no fear, Ya‘akov, you worm,
you men of Isra’el!’
I will help you,” says Adonai;
“Your redeemer is the Holy One of Isra’el.

¹⁵ “I will make you into a threshing-sledge,
new, with sharp, pointed teeth,
to thresh the mountains and crush them to dust,
to reduce the hills to chaff.
¹⁶ As you fan them, the wind will carry them off,
and the whirlwind will scatter them.
Then you will rejoice in Adonai,
you will glory in the Holy One of Isra’el.

¹⁷ “The poor and needy look for water in vain;
their tongues are parched with thirst.
I, Adonai, will answer them.
I, the God of Isra’el, will not leave them.
¹⁸ I will open up rivers on the barren hills
and wells down in the broad valleys.
I will turn the desert into a lake
and dry ground into springs.
¹⁹ I will plant the desert with cedars,
acacias, myrtles and olive trees;
In the ‘Aravah I will put cypresses
together with elm trees and larches.”
²⁰ Then the people will see and know,
together observe and understand
that the hand of Adonai has done this,
that the Holy One of Isra’el created it.

²¹ “Present your case,” says Adonai,
“Produce your arguments,” says Ya‘akov’s king.

²² Bring out those idols!
Have them foretell the future for us,
tell us about past events,
so that we can reflect on them
and understand their consequences.
Or tell us about events yet to come,
²³ state what will happen in the future,
so that we can know you are gods.
At least, do something, either good or bad —
anything, to make us awestruck and fearful!
²⁴ You can’t! — because you are less than nothing.
Whoever chooses you is an abomination!

²⁵ “I roused someone from the north,
and he has come from the rising sun;
he will call on my name.
He will trample on rulers as if they were mud,
like a potter treading clay.”

²⁶ Who said this at the start, so we could know,
or foretold it, so we could say, “He’s right”?
In fact, no one said it; no one foretold it —
the fact is, nobody hears what you say.
²⁷ I am the first to declare it to Tziyon,
to send Yerushalayim a messenger with good news.
²⁸ But when I look around, there is no one —
not a single one can give counsel,
who, when I ask, can give an answer.
²⁹ Look at them all! What they do is nothing!
Their idols are so much wind and waste.

42 “Here is my servant, whom I support,
my chosen one, in whom I take pleasure.
I have put my Spirit on him;
he will bring justice to the Goyim.
² He will not cry or shout;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
³ He will not snap off a broken reed
or snuff out a smoldering wick.
He will bring forth justice according to truth;
⁴ he will not weaken or be crushed
until he has established justice on the earth,
and the coastlands wait for his Torah.”

⁵ Thus says God, Adonai,
who created the heavens and spread them out,
who stretched out the earth and all that grows from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk on it:
⁶ “I, Adonai, called you righteously,
I took hold of you by the hand,
I shaped you and made you a covenant for the people,
to be a light for the Goyim,
⁷ so that you can open blind eyes,
free the prisoners from confinement,
those living in darkness from the dungeon.
⁸ I am Adonai; that is my name.
I yield my glory to no one else,
nor my praise to any idol.
⁹ See how the former predictions come true;
and now new things do I declare —
before they sprout I tell you about them.”

¹⁰ Sing to Adonai a new song!
Let his praise be sung from the ends of the earth
by those sailing the sea and by everything in it,
by the coastlands and those living there.
¹¹ Let the desert and its cities raise their voices,
the villages where Kedar lives;
let those living in Sela shout for joy;
let them cry out from the mountaintops!
¹² Let them give glory to Adonai
and proclaim his praise in the coastlands.
¹³ Adonai will go out like a soldier,
like a soldier roused to the fury of battle;
he will shout, yes, he raises the battle cry;
as he triumphs over his foes.

¹⁴ “For a long time I have held my peace,
I have been silent, restrained myself.
Now I will shriek like a woman in labor,
panting and gasping for air.
¹⁵ I will devastate mountains and hills,
wither all their vegetation,
turn the rivers into islands
and dry up the lakes.
¹⁶ The blind I will lead on a road they don’t know,
on roads they don’t know I will lead them;
I will turn darkness to light before them,
and straighten their twisted paths.
These are things I will do without fail.
¹⁷ Those who trust in idols,
who say to statues, ‘You are our gods,’
will be repulsed in utter shame.
¹⁸ Listen, you deaf! Look, you blind! —
so that you will see!
¹⁹ Who is as blind as my servant,
or as deaf as the messenger I send?
Who is as blind as the one I rewarded,
as blind as the servant of Adonai?”

²⁰ You see much but don’t pay attention;
you open your ears, but you don’t listen.
²¹ Adonai was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake,
to make the Torah great and glorious.
²² But this is a people pillaged and plundered,
all trapped in holes and sequestered in prisons.
They are there to be plundered, with no one to rescue them;
there to be pillaged, and no one says, “Return them!”
²³ Which of you will listen to this?
Who will hear and give heed in the times to come?
²⁴ Who gave Ya‘akov to be pillaged,
Isra’el to the plunderers?
Didn’t Adonai, against whom we have sinned,
in whose ways they refused to walk,
he whose Torah they did not obey?
²⁵ This is why he poured on him his blazing anger
as well as the fury of battle —
it wrapped him in flames, yet he learned nothing;
it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.

43 But now this is what Adonai says,
he who created you, Ya‘akov,
he who formed you, Isra’el:
“Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you;
I am calling you by your name; you are mine.
² When you pass through water, I will be with you;
when you pass through rivers, they will not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire, you will not be scorched —
the flame will not burn you.
³ For I am Adonai, your God,
the Holy One of Isra’el, your Savior —
I have given Egypt as your ransom,
Ethiopia and S’va for you.
⁴ Because I regard you as valued and honored,
and because I love you.
For you I will give people,
nations in exchange for your life.
⁵ Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
I will bring your descendants from the east,
and I will gather you from the west;
⁶ I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
and to the south, ‘Don’t hold them back!
Bring my sons from far away,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth,
⁷ everyone who bears my name,
whom I created for my glory —
I formed him, yes, I made him.’”

⁸ Bring forward the people who are blind but have eyes,
also the deaf who have ears.
⁹ All the nations are gathered together,
and the peoples are assembled.
Who among them can proclaim this
and reveal what happened in the past?
Let them bring their witnesses to justify themselves,
so that others, on hearing, can say, “That’s true.”

¹⁰ “You are my witnesses,” says Adonai,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you can know and trust me
and understand that I am he —
no god was produced before me,
nor will any be after me.
¹¹ I, yes I, am Adonai;
besides me there is no deliverer.
¹² I have declared, saved and proclaimed —
not some alien god among you.
Therefore you are my witnesses,”
says Adonai. “I am God.
¹³ Since days began, I have been he.
No one can deliver from my hand.
When I act, who can reverse it?”

¹⁴ Here is what Adonai, your redeemer,
the Holy One of Isra’el, says:
“For your sake I have sent [an army] to Bavel
and knocked down the fleeing Kasdim, all of them;
their songs of triumph are now lamentations.
¹⁵ I am Adonai, your Holy One,
the Creator of Isra’el, your King.”

¹⁶ Here is what Adonai says,
who made a way in the sea,
a path through the raging waves;
¹⁷ who led out chariot and horse,
the army in its strength —
they lay down, never to rise again,
snuffed out and quenched like a wick:
¹⁸ “Stop dwelling on past events
and brooding over times gone by;
¹⁹ I am doing something new;
it’s springing up — can’t you see it?
I am making a road in the desert,
rivers in the wasteland.
²⁰ The wild animals will honor me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
because I put water in the desert,
rivers in the wasteland,
for my chosen people to drink,
²¹ the people I formed for myself,
so that they would proclaim my praise.
²² But you haven’t called on me, Ya‘akov;
because you have grown weary of me, Isra’el.
²³ You have not brought me sheep for your burnt offerings,
you have not honored me with your sacrifices.
I didn’t burden you by requiring grain offerings.
or weary you by demanding frankincense.
²⁴ You have not spent money to buy me sweet cane
or filled me with the fat of your sacrifices.
Instead, you have burdened me with your sins
and wearied me with your crimes.
²⁵ I, yes I, am the one who blots out
your offenses for my own sake;
I will not remember your sins.
²⁶ Remind me when we’re in court together —
tell your side, make the case that you are right.
²⁷ Your first father sinned,
and your spokesmen rebelled against me.
²⁸ Therefore I repudiated the officials of the sanctuary,
delivered Ya‘akov to the curse of destruction,
and subjected Isra’el to scorn.