Isaiah 40–66

Israel’s Punishment Will End

40Your God says,

“Comfort, comfort my people.

²Speak kindly to the people of Jerusalem

and tell them

that their time of service is finished,

that they have paid for their sins,

that the Lord has punished Jerusalem

twice for every sin they did.”

³This is the voice of one who calls out:

“Prepare in the desert

the way for the Lord.

Make a straight road in the dry lands

for our God.

⁴Every valley should be raised up,

and every mountain and hill should be made flat.

The rough ground should be made level,

and the rugged ground should be made smooth.

⁵Then the glory of the Lord will be shown,

and all people together will see it.

The Lord himself said these things.”

⁶A voice says, “Cry out!”

Then I said, “What shall I cry out?”

“Say all people are like the grass,

and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

⁷The grass dies and the flowers fall

when the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Surely the people are like grass.

⁸The grass dies and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God will live forever.”

⁹Jerusalem, you have good news to tell.

Go up on a high mountain.

Jerusalem, you have good news to tell.

Shout out loud the good news.

Shout it out and don’t be afraid.

Say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God.”

¹⁰Look, the Lord God is coming with power

to rule all the people.

Look, he will bring reward for his people;

he will have their payment with him.

¹¹He takes care of his people like a shepherd.

He gathers them like lambs in his arms

and carries them close to him.

He gently leads the mothers of the lambs.

God Is Supreme

¹²Who has measured the oceans in the palm of his hand?

Who has used his hand to measure the sky?

Who has used a bowl to measure all the dust of the earth

and scales to weigh the mountains and hills?

¹³Who has known the mind of the Lord

or been able to give him advice?

¹⁴Whom did he ask for help?

Who taught him the right way?

Who taught him knowledge

and showed him the way to understanding?

¹⁵The nations are like one small drop in a bucket;

they are no more than the dust on his measuring scales.

To him the islands are no more than fine dust on his scales.

¹⁶All the trees in Lebanon are not enough for the altar fires,

and all the animals in Lebanon are not enough for burnt offerings.

¹⁷Compared to the Lord all the nations are worth nothing;

to him they are less than nothing.

¹⁸Can you compare God to anything?

Can you compare him to an image of anything?

¹⁹An idol is formed by a craftsman,

and a goldsmith covers it with gold

and makes silver chains for it.

²⁰A poor person cannot buy those expensive statues,

so he finds a tree that will not rot.

Then he finds a skilled craftsman

to make it into an idol that will not fall over.

²¹Surely you know. Surely you have heard.

Surely from the beginning someone told you.

Surely you understand how the earth was created.

²²God sits on his throne above the circle of the earth,

and compared to him, people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the skies like a piece of cloth

and spreads them out like a tent to sit under.

²³He makes rulers unimportant

and the judges of this world worth nothing.

²⁴They are like plants that are placed in the ground,

like seeds that are planted.

As soon as they begin to grow strong,

he blows on them and they die,

and the wind blows them away like chaff.

²⁵God, the Holy One, says, “Can you compare me to anyone?

Is anyone equal to me?”

²⁶Look up to the skies.

Who created all these stars?

He leads out the army of heaven one by one

and calls all the stars by name.

Because he is strong and powerful,

not one of them is missing.

²⁷People of Jacob, why do you complain?

People of Israel, why do you say,

“The Lord does not see what happens to me;

he does not care if I am treated fairly”?

²⁸Surely you know.

Surely you have heard.

The Lord is the God who lives forever,

who created all the world.

He does not become tired or need to rest.

No one can understand how great his wisdom is.

²⁹He gives strength to those who are tired

and more power to those who are weak.

³⁰Even children become tired and need to rest,

and young people trip and fall.

³¹But the people who trust the Lord will become strong again.

They will rise up as an eagle in the sky;

they will run and not need rest;

they will walk and not become tired.

The Lord Will Help Israel

41The Lord says, “Faraway countries, listen to me.

Let the nations become strong.

Come to me and speak;

we will meet together to decide who is right.

²“Who caused the one to come from the east?

Who gives him victories everywhere he goes?

The one who brought him gives nations over to him

and defeats kings.

He uses his sword, and kings become like dust.

He uses his bow, and they are blown away like chaff.

³He chases them and is never hurt,

going places he has never been before.

⁴Who caused this to happen?

Who has controlled history since the beginning?

I, the Lord, am the one. I was here at the beginning,

and I will be here when all things are finished.”

⁵All you faraway places, look and be afraid;

all you places far away on the earth, shake with fear.

Come close and listen to me.

⁶The workers help each other

and say to each other, “Be strong!”

⁷The craftsman encourages the goldsmith,

and the workman who smooths the metal with a hammer encourages the one who shapes the metal.

He says, “This metal work is good.”

He nails the statue to a base so it can’t fall over.

Only the Lord Can Save Us

⁸The Lord says, “People of Israel, you are my servants.

People of Jacob, I chose you.

You are from the family of my friend Abraham.

⁹I took you from places far away on the earth

and called you from a faraway country.

I said, ‘You are my servants.’

I have chosen you and have not turned against you.

¹⁰So don’t worry, because I am with you.

Don’t be afraid, because I am your God.

I will make you strong and will help you;

I will support you with my right hand that saves you.

¹¹“All those people who are angry with you

will be ashamed and disgraced.

Those who are against you

will disappear and be lost.

¹²You will look for your enemies,

but you will not find them.

Those who fought against you

will vanish completely.

¹³I am the Lord your God,

who holds your right hand,

and I tell you, ‘Don’t be afraid.

I will help you.’

¹⁴You few people of Israel who are left,

do not be afraid even though you are weak as a worm.

I myself will help you,” says the Lord.

“The one who saves you is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Look, I have made you like a new threshing board

with many sharp teeth.

So you will walk on mountains and crush them;

you will make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶You will throw them into the air, and the wind will carry them away;

a windstorm will scatter them.

Then you will be happy in the Lord;

you will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷“The poor and needy people look for water,

but they can’t find any.

Their tongues are dry with thirst.

But I, the Lord, will answer their prayers;

I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.

¹⁸I will make rivers flow on the dry hills

and springs flow through the valleys.

I will change the desert into a lake of water

and the dry land into fountains of water.

¹⁹I will make trees grow in the desert—

cedars, acacia, myrtle, and olive trees.

I will put pine, fir, and cypress trees

growing together in the desert.

²⁰People will see these things and understand;

they will think carefully about these things and learn

that the Lord’s power did this,

that the Holy One of Israel made these things.”

The Lord Challenges False Gods

²¹The Lord says, “Present your case.”

The King of Jacob says, “Tell me your arguments.

²²Bring in your idols to tell us

what is going to happen.

Have them tell us what happened in the beginning.

Then we will think about these things,

and we will know how they will turn out.

Or tell us what will happen in the future.

²³Tell us what is coming next

so we will believe that you are gods.

Do something, whether it is good or bad,

and make us afraid.

²⁴You gods are less than nothing;

you can’t do anything.

Those who worship you should be hated.

²⁵“I have brought someone to come out of the north ⁿ

I have called by name a man from the east, and he knows me.

He walks on kings as if they were mud,

just as a potter walks on the clay.

²⁶Who told us about this before it happened?

Who told us ahead of time so we could say, ‘He was right’?

None of you told us anything;

none of you told us before it happened;

no one heard you tell about it.

²⁷I, the Lord, was the first one to tell Jerusalem that the people were coming home.

I sent a messenger to Jerusalem with the good news.

²⁸I look at the idols, but there is not one that can answer.

None of them can give advice;

none of them can answer my questions.

²⁹Look, all these idols are false.

They cannot do anything;

they are worth nothing.

The Lord’s Special Servant

42“Here is my servant, the one I support.

He is the one I chose, and I am pleased with him.

I have put my Spirit upon him,

and he will bring justice to all nations.

²He will not cry out or yell

or speak loudly in the streets.

³He will not break a crushed blade of grass

or put out even a weak flame.

He will truly bring justice;

⁴he will not lose hope or give up

until he brings justice to the world.

And people far away will trust his teachings.”

⁵God, the Lord, said these things.

He created the skies and stretched them out.

He spread out the earth and everything on it.

He gives life to all people on earth,

to everyone who walks on the earth.

⁶The Lord says, “I, the Lord, called you to do right,

and I will hold your hand

and protect you.

You will be the sign of my agreement with the people,

a light to shine for all people.

⁷You will help the blind to see.

You will free those who are in prison,

and you will lead those who live in darkness out of their prison.

⁸“I am the Lord. That is my name.

I will not give my glory to another;

I will not let idols take the praise that should be mine.

⁹The things I said would happen have happened,

and now I tell you about new things.

Before those things happen,

I tell you about them.”

A Song of Praise to the Lord

¹⁰Sing a new song to the Lord;

sing his praise everywhere on the earth.

Praise him, you people who sail on the…