Isaiah 40

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says God.

2 Priests, speak to Jerusalem’s heart and comfort her. Her humiliation is complete and her sin removed, because she received from the Lord’s hand twice the amount of her sins.

3 A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make the paths of our God straight.

4 Every valley will be filled, every mountain and hill brought low, every crooked road straightened, and rough places turned into plains.

5 The glory of the Lord will appear, and all humanity will see God’s rescue, because the Lord has spoken.

6 A voice said, Cry out! I asked, What should I cry? All humanity is grass, and all human glory is like a flower of grass.

7 The grass dried up, and the flower fell,

8 but the word of our God remains forever.

9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift your voice with strength. Lift it up; do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Look, your God!

10 Look, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm comes with power. Look, his reward is with him and his work before him.

11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd, gather the lambs in his arms, and comfort those heavy with young.

12 Who has measured the water in his hand, measured heaven by the nine-inch span of his hand, and held the whole earth in a handful? Who has weighed the mountains on scales and the wooded valleys on a balance?

13 Who has known the mind of the Lord? Who has been his counselor and instructed him?

14 Whom did he consult, and who instructed him? Who taught him judgment or showed him the path of understanding?

15 All the nations are counted like a drop from a bucket, like the tipping of a balance; they are counted like spit.

16 Lebanon is not enough fuel for the fire, nor are all the four-footed animals enough for a whole burnt offering.

17 Every nation is counted as nothing, as though it did not exist.

18 To whom have you compared the Lord? What likeness have you compared with him?

19 Has a craftsman made an image? Has a goldsmith melted gold and overlaid it, making it into a likeness?

20 The craftsman chooses wood that will not rot and carefully considers how to set up the image so that it will not move.

21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Was it not told to you long ago? Do you not know the foundations of the earth?

22 He holds the circle of the earth, whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers. He set up heaven like a chamber and stretched it out like a tent to live in.

23 He reduces rulers to nothing and makes the earth amount to nothing.

24 They will not sow or plant, and their root will not take hold in the ground. He blew on them, and they withered, and a storm will carry them away like sticks.

25 So then, whom have you compared me to, that I should be exalted? says the Holy One.

26 Lift your eyes on high and see: Who displayed all these things? He brings out his host by number and calls them all by name. Because of his great glory and mighty power, nothing has escaped you.

27 Jacob, do not say—and Israel, why do you say—My way is hidden from God; my God has taken away my case and departed?

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The eternal God, who formed the ends of the earth, will not hunger or grow tired, and his understanding cannot be searched out.

29 He gives strength to the hungry and sorrow to those who are not suffering.

30 Young men will hunger, youths will grow tired, and chosen men will be powerless,

31 but those who wait for God will renew their strength. They will grow new feathers like eagles, run without growing tired, and walk without becoming hungry.