Isaiah 40 - 41

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The Glory of Yahweh Will Be Revealed

“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.

“Speak to the heart of Jerusalem;

And call out to her, that her warfare has been fulfilled,

That her iniquity has been removed,

That she has received from the hand of Yahweh

Double for all her sins.”

A voice is calling,

“Prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;

Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

Let every valley be lifted up,

And every mountain and hill be made low;

And let the rough ground become a plain,

And the rugged terrain a broad valley;

Then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed,

And all flesh will see it together;

For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.”

A voice says, “Call out.”

Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”

All flesh is grass, and all its lovingkindness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

When the breath of Yahweh blows upon it;

Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.

Get yourself up on a high mountain,

O Zion, bearer of good news,

Raise up your voice powerfully,

O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;

Raise it up, do not fear.

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!”

Behold, Lord Yahweh will come with strength,

With His arm ruling for Him.

Behold, His reward is with Him

And His recompense before Him.

Like a shepherd He will shepherd His flock;

In His arm He will gather the lambs

And carry them in His bosom;

He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,

And encompassed the heavens by the span,

And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,

And weighed the mountains in a balance

And the hills in a pair of scales?

Who has encompassed the Spirit of Yahweh,

Or as His counselor has informed Him?

With whom did He take counsel and who gave Him understanding?

And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge

And made Him know the way of understanding?

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

And are counted as a speck of dust on the scales;

Behold, He lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.

Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,

Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before Him;

They are counted by Him as non‑existent and utterly formless.

To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

As for the graven images, a craftsman casts it,

A goldsmith plates it with gold,

And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

He who is too impoverished to make such a contribution

Chooses a tree that does not rot;

He seeks out for himself a wise craftsman

To prepare a graven image that will not be shaken.

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is He who inhabits above the circle of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

It is He who stretches out the heavens like a curtain

And spreads them out like a tent to inhabit.

It is He who reduces rulers to nothing,

Who makes the judges of the earth utterly formless.

Scarcely have they been planted;

Scarcely have they been sown;

Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

But He merely blows on them, and they wither,

And the storm carries them away like stubble.

“To whom then will you liken Me

That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high

And see who has created these stars,

The One who leads forth their host by number,

He calls them all by name;

Because of the greatness of His vigor and the strength of His power,

Not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from Yahweh,

And the justice due me passes by my God”?

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The Everlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

Does not become weary or tired.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the weary,

And to him who lacks vigor He increases might.

Though youths grow weary and tired,

And choice young men stumble badly,

Yet those who hope in Yahweh

Will gain new power;

They will mount up with wings like eagles;

They will run and not get tired;

They will walk and not become weary.

Do Not Fear, for I Am with You

“Coastlands, listen to Me in silence,

And let the peoples gain new power;

Let them come forward, then let them speak;

Let us draw near together for judgment.

Who has awakened one from the east

Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet?

He gives up nations before him

And has dominion over kings.

He makes them like dust with his sword,

As the wind‑driven chaff with his bow.

He pursues them, passing on in peace,

By a way he had not come with his feet.

Who has worked and done it,

Calling forth the generations from the beginning?

‘I, Yahweh, am the first; and with the last, I am He.’”

The coastlands have seen and are afraid;

The ends of the earth tremble;

They have drawn near and have come.

Each one helps his neighbor

And says to his brother, “Be strong!”

So the craftsman strengthens the smelter,

And he who smooths metal with the hammer strengthens him who beats the anvil,

Saying of the soldering, “It is good”;

And he strengthens it with nails,

So that it will not be shaken.

“But you, Israel, My servant,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

Seed of Abraham My friend,

You whom I have strongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,

And called from its remotest parts

And said to you, ‘You are My servant,

I have chosen you and not rejected you.

Do not fear, for I am with you;

Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will make you mighty, surely I will help you;

Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;

Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.

You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,

Those who war with you will be as nothing and non‑existent.

For I am Yahweh your God, who strongly takes hold of your right hand,

Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’

Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel;

I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;

You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them,

And will make the hills like chaff.

You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away,

And the storm will scatter them;

But you will rejoice in Yahweh;

You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.

“The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none,

And their tongue is parched with thirst;

I, Yahweh, will answer them Myself,

As the God of Israel I will not forsake them.

I will open rivers on the bare heights

And springs in the midst of the valleys;

I will make the wilderness a pool of water

And the dry land fountains of water.

I will put the cedar in the wilderness,

The acacia and the myrtle and the olive tree;

I will place the juniper in the desert

Together with the box tree and the cypress,

That they may see and know,

And establish and gain insight as well,

That the hand of Yahweh has done this,

And the Holy One of Israel has created it.

“Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.

“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”

The King of Jacob says.

Let them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;

As for the former events, declare what they were,

That we may establish our heart on them and know their outcome.

Or cause us to hear of what is coming;

Declare the things that are to come afterward,

That we may know that you are gods;

Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.

Behold, you are nothing,

And your work is non‑existent;

He who chooses you is an abomination.

“I have awakened one from the north, and he has come;

From the rising of the sun he will call on My name;

And he will come upon officials as upon mortar,

Even as the potter treads clay.”

Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know?

Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?

Surely there was no one who declared;

Surely there was no one who caused those words to be heard;

Surely there was no one who heard your words.

“Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’

And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’

But I look, and there is no one,

And there is no counselor among them

Who, if I ask, can respond with a word.

Behold, all of them are false;

Their works are non‑existent;

Their molten images are wind and utter formlessness.

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