Isaiah 40–66

GOD’S PEOPLE COMFORTED

40“Comfort, comfort my people,”^t

says your God.

²“Speak tenderly to^A Jerusalem,

and announce to her

that her time of hard service is over,

her iniquity^u has been pardoned,^v

and she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.”^w

³A voice of one crying out:

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;^x

make a straight highway for our God in the desert.^y

⁴Every valley will be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill will be leveled;

the uneven ground will become smooth

and the rough places, a plain.^z

⁵And the glory of the Lord will appear,^aa

and all humanity^A together will see it,^ab

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.^ac

⁶A voice was saying, “Cry out!”

Another said,^B “What should I cry out?”

“All humanity is grass,^ad

and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.^a

⁷The grass withers, the flowers fade

when the breath^C of the Lord blows on them;^D

indeed, the people are grass.

⁸The grass withers, the flowers fade,^b

but the word of our God remains forever.”^c

⁹Zion, herald of good news,

go up on a high mountain.^d

Jerusalem, herald of good news,^e

raise your voice loudly.

Raise it, do not be afraid!

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”^f

¹⁰See, the Lord God comes with strength,

and his power establishes his rule.^g

His wages are with him,^h

and his reward accompanies him.

¹¹He protects his flock like a shepherd;ⁱ

he gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them in the fold of his garment.

He gently leads those that are nursing.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand?^j

Who has gathered the dust of the earth in a measure

or weighed the mountains on a balance

and the hills on the scales?

¹³Who has directed^E the Spirit of the Lord,

or who gave him counsel?^k

¹⁴Who did he consult?

Who gave him understanding^l

and taught him the paths of justice?

Who taught him knowledge

and showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Look, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are considered as a speck of dust on the scales;

he lifts up the islands like fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon’s cedars are not enough for fuel,

or its animals enough for a burnt offering.^m

¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him;

they are considered by him

as empty nothingness.ⁿ

¹⁸With whom will you compare God?

What likeness will you set up for comparison with him?^o

¹⁹An idol?—something that a smelter casts

and a metalworker plates with gold

and makes silver chains for?^p

²⁰A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal

that will not rot.^A

He looks for a skilled craftsman

to set up an idol that will not fall over.^q

²¹Do you not know?^r

Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you

from the beginning?

Have you not considered

the foundations of the earth?^s

²²God is enthroned above the circle of the earth;

its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.^t

He stretches out the heavens like thin cloth^u

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.^v

²³He reduces princes to nothing^w

and makes judges of the earth like a wasteland.

²⁴They are barely planted, barely sown,

their stem hardly takes root in the ground

when he blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind carries them away like stubble.^x

²⁵“To whom will you compare me,^y

or who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.

²⁶Look up and see!

Who created^z these?

He brings out the stars by number;

he calls all of them by name.^aa

Because of his great power and strength,

not one of them is missing.

²⁷Jacob, why do you say,

and Israel, why do you assert,

“My way is hidden from the Lord,

and my claim is ignored by my God”?^a

²⁸Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,^b

the Creator of the whole earth.

He never becomes faint or weary;

there is no limit to his understanding.^c

²⁹He gives strength to the faint

and strengthens the powerless.

³⁰Youths may become faint and weary,

and young men stumble and fall,

³¹but those who trust in the Lord

will renew their strength;^d

they will soar on wings like eagles;^e

they will run and not become weary,

they will walk and not faint.

THE LORD VERSUS THE NATIONS’ GODS

41“Be silent before me, coasts and islands!^f

And let peoples renew their strength.

Let them approach; let them testify;

let’s come together for the trial.

²Who has stirred up someone from the east?^g

In righteousness he calls him to serve.^ABh

The Lord hands nations over to him,ⁱ

and he subdues kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

like wind-driven stubble with his bow.

³He pursues them, going on safely,

hardly touching the path with his feet.

⁴Who has performed and done this,

calling the generations from the beginning?

I am the Lord, the first

and with the last^j—I am he.”^k

⁵The coasts and islands see and are afraid,

the whole earth trembles.^l

They approach and arrive.

⁶Each one helps the other,

and says to another, “Take courage!”

⁷The craftsman encourages the metalworker;^m

the one who flattens with the hammer

encourages the one who strikes the anvil,

saying of the soldering, “It is good.”

He fastens it with nails so that it will not fall over.ⁿ

⁸But you, Israel, my servant,^o

Jacob, whom I have chosen,^p

descendant of Abraham, my friend^q—

⁹I brought^C you from the ends of the earth

and called you from its farthest corners.

I said to you: You are my servant;

I have chosen you; I haven’t rejected you.^r

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you;^s

do not be afraid, for I am your God.^t

I will strengthen you; I will help you;

I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.^u

¹¹Be sure that all who are enraged against you

will be ashamed and disgraced;^v

those who contend with you

will become as nothing and will perish.

¹²You will look for those who contend with you,

but you will not find them.

Those who war against you

will become absolutely nothing.

¹³For I am the Lord your God,^w

who holds your right hand,

who says to you, “Do not fear,

I will help you.

¹⁴Do not fear, you worm Jacob,^x

you men^A of Israel.

I will help you”—

this is the Lord’s declaration.

Your Redeemer^y is the Holy One of Israel.^z

¹⁵See, I will make you into a sharp threshing board,

new, with many teeth.

You will thresh mountains and pulverize them

and make hills into chaff.^aa

¹⁶You will winnow them^ab

and a wind will carry them away,

a whirlwind will scatter them.

But you will rejoice in the Lord;

you will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷The poor and the needy seek water, but there is none;

their tongues are parched with thirst.

I will answer them.^a

I am the Lord, the God of Israel. I will not abandon them.

¹⁸I will open rivers on the barren heights,^b

and springs in the middle of the plains.

I will turn the desert into a pool

and dry land into springs.^c

¹⁹I will plant cedar, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees

in the wilderness.^d

I will put juniper, elm, and cypress trees together

in the desert,

²⁰so that all may see and know,

consider and understand,

that the hand of the Lord has done this,^e

the Holy One of Israel has created^f it.

²¹“Submit your case,” says the Lord.

“Present your arguments,” says Jacob’s King.

²²“Let them come and tell us

what will happen.^g

Tell us the past events,

so that we may reflect on them

and know the outcome,

or tell us the future.

²³Tell us the coming events,^h

then we will know that you are gods.

Indeed, do something good or bad,

then we will be in awe^B when we see it.

²⁴Look, you are nothingⁱ

and your work is worthless.

Anyone who chooses you is detestable.

²⁵“I have stirred up one from the north,^j and he has come,

one from the east^k who invokes my^C name.^l

He will march over rulers as if they were mud,

like a potter who treads the clay.

²⁶Who told about this from the beginning,

so that we might know,

and from times past,

so that we might say, ‘He is right’?

No one announced it,

no one told it,

no one heard your words.

²⁷I was the first to say to Zion,^A

‘Look! Here they are!’

And I gave Jerusalem a herald with good news.^m

²⁸When I look, there is no one;

there is no counselor among them;

when I ask them, they have nothing to say.ⁿ

²⁹Look, all of them are a delusion;^B

their works are nonexistent;

their images are wind and emptiness.

THE SERVANT’S MISSION

42“This^o is my servant;^p I strengthen him,

this is my chosen one;^q I delight in him.^r

I have put my Spirit on him;^s

he will bring justice^C to the nations.^t

²He will not cry out or shout

or make his voice heard in the streets.

³He will not break a bruised reed,

and he will not put out a smoldering wick;

he will faithfully bring justice.

⁴He will not grow weak or be discouraged

until he has established justice on earth.

The coasts and islands will wait for his instruction.”^u

⁵This is what God, the Lord, says—

who created the heavens and stretched them out,^v

who spread out the earth and what comes from it,^w

who gives breath to the people on it

and spirit to those who walk on it^x—

⁶“I am the Lord. I have called you

for a righteous purpose,^Dy

and I will hold you by your hand.^z

I will watch over you, and I will appoint you

to be a covenant for the people^a

and a light to the nations,^b

⁷in order to open blind eyes,^c

to bring out prisoners from the dungeon,^d

and those sitting in darkness from the prison house.

⁸I am the Lord. That is my name,

and I will not give my glory to another^e

or my praise to idols.

⁹The past events have indeed happened.

Now I declare new events;^f

I announce them to you before they occur.”

A SONG OF PRAISE

¹⁰Sing a new song to the Lord;^g

sing his praise from the ends of the earth,

you who go down to the sea with all that fills it,^h

you coasts and islands with your^A inhabitants.

¹¹Let the desert and its cities shout,

the settlements where Kedar dwells cry aloud.ⁱ

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy;^j

let them cry out from the mountaintops.

¹²Let them give glory to the Lord

and declare his praise in the coasts and islands.

¹³The Lord advances like a warrior;

he stirs up his zeal like a soldier.^k

He shouts, he roars aloud,

he prevails over his enemies.

¹⁴“I have kept silent from ages…