Isaiah 40:6–31

The Word of God Stands Forever

⁶A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said,³ “What shall I cry?”

ⁱAll flesh is grass,

and all its beauty⁴ is like the flower of the field.

⁷The grass withers, the flower fades

when the breath of the Lord blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

^8jThe grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

The Greatness of God

⁹Go on up to a high mountain,

O Zion, ^kherald of good news;⁵

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;⁶

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!”

^10lBehold, the Lord God comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

^mbehold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

¹¹ⁿHe will tend his flock like a shepherd;

^ohe will gather the lambs in his arms;

^phe will carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.

^12qWho has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure

and weighed the mountains in scales

and the hills in a balance?

^13rWho has measured⁷ the Spirit of the Lord,

or what man shows him his counsel?

¹⁴Whom did he consult,

and who made him understand?

^sWho taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

and are accounted ^tas the dust on the scales;

behold, he takes up ^uthe coastlands like fine dust.

¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,

nor are ^vits beasts enough for a burnt offering.

^17wAll the nations are as nothing before him,

they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

^18xTo whom then will you liken God,

^yor what likeness compare with him?

^19yAn idol! A craftsman casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts for it silver chains.

^20zHe who is too impoverished for an offering

chooses wood⁸ that will not rot;

he seeks out a skillful craftsman

to set up an idol that will not move.

^21aDo you not know? Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

²²It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are ^blike grasshoppers;

^cwho stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

^23dwho brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

when he blows on them, and they wither,

^eand the tempest carries them off like stubble.

^25fTo whom then will you compare me,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

²⁶Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

^gHe who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name;

by the greatness of his might

and because he is strong in power,

not one is missing.

²⁷Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

^h“My way is hidden from the Lord,

ⁱand my right is disregarded by my God”?

²⁸Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is ^jthe everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

^khis understanding is unsearchable.

²⁹He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

³¹but ^lthey who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings ^mlike eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.