Isaiah 40 - 44 — Legacy Standard Bible

The Glory of Yahweh Will Be Revealed

40“^aComfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.²“^aSpeak to the heart of Jerusalem;And call out to her, that her ¹^,^bwarfare has been fulfilled,That her ²^,^ciniquity has been removed,That she has received from the hand of Yahweh^dDouble for all her sins.”³^aA voice ¹is calling,“^bPrepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness;Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.⁴“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;⁵¹Then the ^aglory of Yahweh will be revealed,And ^ball flesh will see it together;For the ^cmouth of Yahweh has spoken.”⁶A voice says, “Call out.”Then ¹he answered, “What shall I call out?”^aAll flesh is grass, and all its lovingkindness is like the flower of the field.⁷The ^agrass ¹withers, the flower fades,²When the ^bbreath of Yahweh blows upon it;Surely the people are grass.⁸The grass ¹withers, the flower fades,But ^athe word of our God stands forever.⁹Get yourself up on a ^ahigh mountain,O Zion, bearer of ^bgood news,Raise up your voice powerfully,O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;Raise it up, do not fear.Say to the ^ccities of Judah,“^dBehold your God!”¹⁰Behold, Lord Yahweh will come ^awith strength,With His ^barm ruling for Him.Behold, His ^creward is with HimAnd His recompense before Him.¹¹Like a shepherd He will ^ashepherd His flock;In His arm He will gather the lambsAnd carry them in His bosom;He will gently lead the nursing ewes.¹²Who has ^ameasured the ¹waters in the hollow of His hand,And ²encompassed the heavens by the ³span,And ⁴calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,And weighed the mountains in a balanceAnd the hills in a pair of scales?¹³^aWho has ¹encompassed the Spirit of Yahweh,Or as His ^bcounselor has informed Him?¹⁴^aWith whom did He take counsel and who ^bgave Him understanding?And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledgeAnd made Him know the way of understanding?¹⁵Behold, the ^anations are like a drop from a bucket,And are counted as a speck of ^bdust on the scales;Behold, He lifts up the coastlands like fine dust.¹⁶Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,Nor its ^abeasts enough for a burnt offering.¹⁷^aAll the nations are as nothing before Him;They are counted by Him as non-existent and utterly formless.¹⁸^aTo whom then will you liken God?Or what likeness will you compare with Him?¹⁹As for the ^agraven images, a craftsman casts it,A goldsmith ^bplates it with gold,And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.²⁰He who is too impoverished to make such a contributionChooses a ^atree that does not rot;He seeks out for himself a wise craftsmanTo ¹prepare a graven image that ^bwill not be shaken.²¹^aDo you not know? Have you not heard?Has it not been declared to you from the beginning?Have you not understood ^bfrom the foundations of the earth?²²It is He who ¹inhabits above the ²^,^acircle of the earth,And its inhabitants are like ^bgrasshoppers;It is He who ^cstretches out the heavens like a ^dcurtainAnd spreads them out like a ^etent to inhabit.²³It is He who reduces ^arulers to nothing,Who ^bmakes the ¹judges of the earth utterly formless.²⁴¹Scarcely have they been planted;²Scarcely have they been sown;³Scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,But He merely blows on them, and they ⁴wither,And the ^astorm carries them away like stubble.²⁵“^aTo whom then will you liken MeThat I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.²⁶^aLift up your eyes on highAnd see ^bwho has created these stars,The ^cOne who leads forth their host by number,He calls them all by name;Because of the ^dgreatness of His vigor and the ¹strength of His power,^eNot one of them is missing.²⁷^aWhy do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,“My way is ^bhidden from Yahweh,And the ^cjustice due me passes by ^dmy God”?²⁸^aDo you not know? Have you not heard?The ^bEverlasting God, Yahweh, the Creator of the ends of the earth,Does not become weary or tired.His understanding is ^cunsearchable.²⁹He gives power to the ^aweary,And to him who lacks vigor He ^bincreases might.³⁰Though ^ayouths grow weary and tired,And choice ^byoung men stumble badly,³¹Yet those who hope in YahwehWill ^again new power;They will ¹^,^bmount up with ²wings like eagles;They will run and not get tired;They will walk and not become weary.

Do Not Fear, for I Am with You

41“^aCoastlands, listen to Me ^bin silence,And let the peoples ^cgain new power;^dLet them come forward, then let them speak;^eLet us draw near together for judgment.²“^aWho has awakened one from the eastWhom He ^bcalls in righteousness to His ¹feet?He ^cgives up nations before himAnd ²has dominion over kings.He makes them like ^ddust with his sword,As the wind-driven ^echaff with his bow.³“He pursues them, passing on in peace,By a way he had not ¹come with his feet.⁴“^aWho has worked and done it,Calling forth the generations from the beginning?‘^bI, Yahweh, am the first; and with the last, ^cI am He.’”⁵The ^acoastlands have seen and are afraid;The ^bends of the earth tremble;They have drawn near and have come.⁶Each one helps his neighborAnd says to his brother, “Be strong!”⁷So the ^acraftsman strengthens the ^bsmelter,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,^cSo that it will not be shaken.⁸“But you, Israel, ^aMy servant,Jacob whom I have chosen,Seed of ^bAbraham My ^cfriend,⁹You whom I have ¹^,^astrongly taken hold of from the ends of the earth,And called from its ^bremotest partsAnd said to you, ‘You are ^cMy servant,I have ^dchosen you and not rejected you.¹⁰‘Do not ^afear, for I am with you;Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.I will make you mighty, surely ^bI will help you;Surely I will uphold you with My righteous ^cright hand.’¹¹“Behold, ^aall those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored;^bThose who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish.¹²“^aYou will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them,Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent.¹³“For I am Yahweh your God, ^awho ¹strongly takes hold of your right hand,Who says to you, ‘^bDo not fear, I will help you.’¹⁴“Do not fear, you ^aworm Jacob, you men of Israel;I will help you,” declares Yahweh, “¹and ^byour Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.¹⁵“Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;^aYou will thresh the ^bmountains and pulverize them,And will make the hills like chaff.¹⁶“You will ^awinnow them, and the wind will carry them away,And the storm will scatter them;But you will ^brejoice in Yahweh;You will boast in the Holy One of Israel.¹⁷“The ¹afflicted and needy are seeking ^awater, but there is none,And their tongue is parched with thirst;I, Yahweh, ^bwill answer them Myself,As the God of Israel I ^cwill not forsake them.¹⁸“I will open ^arivers on the bare heightsAnd springs in the midst of the valleys;I will make ^bthe wilderness a pool of waterAnd the dry land fountains of water.¹⁹“I will put the cedar in the wilderness,The acacia and the ^amyrtle and the ¹olive tree;I will place the ^bjuniper in the desertTogether with the box tree and the cypress,²⁰That ^athey may see and know,And establish and gain insight as well,That the ^bhand of Yahweh has done this,And the Holy One of Israel has created it.²¹“Bring near your case,” Yahweh says.“Bring forward your mighty arguments,”The ^aKing of Jacob says.²²^aLet them bring it forth and declare to us what is going to take place;As for the ^bformer 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;²³^aDeclare the things that are to come afterward,That we may know that you are gods;Indeed, ^bdo good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together.²⁴Behold, ^ayou are nothing,And ^byour work is non-existent;He who chooses you is an ^cabomination.²⁵“I have awakened ^aone 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 ^bmortar,Even as the potter treads clay.”²⁶Who has ^adeclared this from the beginning, that we might know?Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”?Surely there was ^bno one who declared;Surely there was no one who caused those words to be heard;Surely there was no one who heard your words.²⁷“^aFormerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a ^bmessenger of good news.’²⁸“But ^aI look, and there is no one,And there is no ^bcounselor ¹among themWho, if I ask, can ^crespond with a word.²⁹“Behold, all of them are ¹false;Their ^aworks are ^bnon-existent;Their molten images are ^cwind and utter formlessness.

Yahweh’s Chosen Servant

42“^aBehold, My ^bServant, whom I ¹uphold;My ^cchosen one in whom My ^dsoul is well-pleased.I have put My ^eSpirit upon Him;He will bring forth ^fjustice to the ²nations.²“He will not cry out or raise His voice,Nor make His voice heard in the street.³“A crushed reed He will not breakAnd a faintly burning wick He will not extinguish;He will bring forth ^ajustice in truth.⁴“He will not be ^afaint or crushedUntil He has established justice in the earth;And the ^bcoastlands will wait expectantly for His ¹law.”

⁵Thus says the God, Yahweh, Who ^acreated the heavens and ^bstretched them out,Who spread out the ^cearth and its ¹offspring,Who ^dgives breath to the people on itAnd spirit to those who walk in it,

⁶“I am Yahweh, I have ^acalled You in righteousness;I will also ^btake hold of You by the hand and ^cguard You,And I will give You as a ^dcovenant to the people,As a ^elight to the nations,⁷To ^aopen blind eyes,To ^bbring out prisoners from the dungeonAnd those who inhabit darkness from the prison.⁸“^aI am Yahweh, that is ^bMy name;I will not give My ^cglory to another,Nor My praise to ¹graven images.⁹“Behold, the ^aformer things have come to pass;Now I declare ^bnew things;Before they spring forth I cause you to hear them.”¹⁰Sing to Yahweh a ^anew song,Sing His praise from the ^bend of the earth!^cYou who go down to the sea, ^das well as its fullness.You ^ecoastlands, and those who inhabit them.¹¹Let the ^awilderness and its cities lift up their voices,The villages where ^bKedar inhabits.Let the inhabitants of ^cSela sing aloud,Let them shout for joy from the tops of the ^dmountains.¹²Let them ^agive glory to YahwehAnd declare His praise in the ^bcoastlands.¹³^aYahweh will go forth like a warrior;He will awaken His ^bzeal like a man of war.He will make a loud shout, indeed, He will raise a war cry.He will ^cprevail against His enemies.

Israel’s Blindness and Deafness

¹⁴“^aI have kept silent for a long time;I have kept still and restrained Myself.Now like a woman in labor I will groan;I will both gasp and pant.¹⁵“I will ^alay waste the mountains and hillsAnd dry up all their vegetation;I will ^bmake the rivers into coastlandsAnd dry up the pools of waters.¹⁶“I will ^alead the blind by a way they do not know,In paths they do not know I will guide them.I will ^bmake darkness into light before themAnd ^crugged places into plains.These are the things I will do,And I will ^dnot forsake them.”¹⁷They will be turned back and be ^autterly put to shame,Who trust in graven images,Who say to molten images,“You are our gods.”¹⁸^aHear, you deaf!And look, you blind, that you may see.¹⁹Who is blind but My ^aservant,Or so deaf as My ^bmessenger whom I send?Who is so blind as he that is ¹^,^cat peace with Me,Or so blind as the servant of Yahweh?²⁰^aYou have seen many things, but you do not keep them;Your ears are open, but none hears.²¹Yahweh was pleased for His righteousness’ sakeThat He make the law ^agreat and majestic.²²But this is a people plundered and pillaged as spoil;All of them are ^atrapped in ¹caves,Or are ^bhidden away in prisons;They have become a plunder with none to deliver them,And a spoil, with none to say, “Have them return!”²³Who among you will give ear to this?Who will give heed and hear hereafter?²⁴Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?Was it not Yahweh, against whom we have sinned,And in whose ways they ^awere not willing to walk,And whose law they did not ^bobey?²⁵So He poured out on him the heat of His angerAnd the ^afierceness of battle;And it set him aflame all around,Yet he did not know it;And it burned him, but he did not ^bset it upon his heart.

The Redemption of Israel

43But now, thus says Yahweh, your ^aCreator, O Jacob,And He who ^bformed you, O Israel,“Do not ^cfear, for I have ^dredeemed you;I have ^ecalled you by name; you are ^fMine!²“When you ^apass through the waters, ^bI will be with you;And through the rivers, they will not overflow you.When you ^cwalk through the fire, you will not be scorched,Nor will the flame burn you.³“For ^aI am Yahweh your God,The Holy One of Israel, your ^bSavior;I have given Egypt as your ransom,¹^,^cEthiopia and Seba in your place.⁴“Since you are ^aprecious in My sight,Since you are ^bhonored and I ^clove you,I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.⁵“Do not fear, for ^aI am with you;I will bring ^byour seed from the east,And ^cgather you from the west.⁶“I will say to the ^anorth, ‘Give them up!’And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’Bring My ^bsons from afarAnd My daughters from the ^cends of the earth,⁷Everyone who is ^acalled by My name,And whom I have ^bcreated for My ^cglory,^dWhom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Israel Is Yahweh’s Witness

⁸Bring out the people who are ^ablind, even though they have eyes,And the deaf, even though they have ears.⁹All the nations have ^agathered togetherSo that the peoples may be assembled.Who among them can ^bdeclare thisAnd make us hear the former things?Let them present ^ctheir witnesses ^dthat they may be justified,Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”¹⁰“You are ^aMy witnesses,” declares Yahweh,“And ^bMy servant whom I have chosen,So that you may know and believe MeAnd understand that ^cI am He.^dBefore Me there was no god formed,And there will be none after Me.¹¹“I, even I, am Yahweh,And there is no ^asavior ^bbesides Me.¹²“It is I who have declared and saved and caused it to be heard,And there was no ^astrange god among you;So you are My witnesses,” declares Yahweh,“And I am God.¹³“Even ¹^,^afrom eternity ^bI am He,And there is ^cnone who can deliver out of My hand;^dI act and who can reverse it?”

Rivers in the Wasteland

¹⁴Thus says Yahweh your ^aRedeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “For your sake I have sent to Babylon,And will bring down those who fled—all of them,¹Even the ^bChaldeans—into the ^cships ²in which they shouted for joy.

¹⁵“I am Yahweh, your Holy One,^aThe Creator of Israel, your ^bKing.”

¹⁶Thus says Yahweh, Who ^amakes a way through the seaAnd a path through the mighty waters,

¹⁷Who brings forth the ^achariot and the horse,The military force and the mighty man;They will lie down together and not rise again;They have been ^bextinguished and quenched like a wick:¹⁸“^aDo not remember the former things,Nor carefully consider things of the past.¹⁹“Behold, I will do something ^anew;Now it will spring forth;Will you not know it?I will even ^bmake a roadway in the wilderness,Rivers in the wasteland.²⁰“The beasts of the field will glorify Me,The ^ajackals and the ostriches,Because I have ^bgiven waters in the wildernessAnd rivers in the wasteland,To give drink to My chosen people.²¹“The people whom ^aI formed for Myself^bWill recount My praise.²²“Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;But you have become ^aweary of Me, O Israel.²³“You have ^anot brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,Nor have you ^bglorified Me with your sacrifices.I have not ^cburdened you with ¹offerings,Nor wearied you with ^dfrankincense.²⁴“You have not bought Me ¹^,^asweet cane with money,Nor have you satisfied Me with the fat of your sacrifices;Rather you have burdened Me with your sins;You have ^bwearied Me with your iniquities.²⁵“I, even I, am the one who ^awipes out your transgressions ^bfor My own sake,And I will ^cnot remember your sins.²⁶“¹Bring Me to remembrance, ^alet us enter into judgment together;Recount your cause, ^bthat you may be proved right.²⁷“Your ^afirst father sinned,And your ¹^,^bspokesmen have ²transgressed against Me.²⁸“So I will ¹profane the ²princes of the sanctuary,And I will give Jacob to be ^adevoted to destruction and Israel to ^brevilement.

No God Besides Yahweh

44“But now hear, O Jacob, My ^aservant,And Israel, whom I have chosen:²Thus says Yahweh who made youAnd ^aformed you from the womb, who ^bwill help you,‘^cDo not fear, O Jacob My servant,And you ^dJeshurun whom I have chosen.³‘For ^aI will pour out water on ¹the thirsty groundAnd streams on the dry land;I will ^bpour out My Spirit on your ^cseedAnd My blessing on your offspring;⁴And they will spring up ¹among the grassLike ^apoplars by streams of water.’⁵“This one will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s’;And this one ¹will call on the name of Jacob;And this one will ^awrite ²on his hand, ‘Belonging to Yahweh,’And will name Israel’s name with honor.

⁶“Thus says Yahweh, the ^aKing of Israel and his ^bRedeemer, Yahweh of hosts: ‘I am the ^cfirst, and I am the last,And there is no God ^dbesides Me.

⁷‘Who is like Me? ^aLet him call out and declare it;And let him tell it to Me in order,¹From the time that I established the ancient ²people.And let them declare to them the things that are to comeAnd the events that are going to take place.⁸‘Do not be in dread and do not be afraid;^aHave I not long since caused it to be heard to you and declared it?And ^byou are My witnesses.Is there any God ^cbesides Me,Or is there any other ^dRock?I know of none.’”

The Futility of Idolatry

⁹Those who form ¹a graven image are all of them ²futile, and their desirable things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be ^aput to shame. ¹⁰Who has formed a god or cast a graven image to ^ano profit? ¹¹Behold, all his companions will be ^aput to shame. The craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them be in dread, let them together be put to shame.

¹²The ^aman crafts iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, ¹forming it with hammers and working it with his powerful arm. He also gets hungry and has no power; he drinks no water and becomes weary. ¹³^aAnother crafts wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with ¹a stylus. He makes it with planes and outlines it with a compass and makes it like the form of a man, like the glory of ^bman, so that it may sit in a ^chouse. ¹⁴In order to cut cedars for himself, he takes a ¹cypress or an oak and ²raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. ¹⁵Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also kindles a fire to bake bread. He also ^aworks to produce a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and ^bfalls down before it. ¹⁶Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, “Aha! I am warm; I have seen the fire.” ¹⁷But the rest of it he ^amakes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also ^bprays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god.”

¹⁸They do not ^aknow, nor do they understand, for He has ^bsmeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they will have no insight. ¹⁹No one causes this to return to his heart, nor is there ^aknowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then ¹I make the rest of it into an ^babomination; ²I fall down before a block of wood!” ²⁰He ¹^,^afeeds on ashes; a ^bdeceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver his soul, and he cannot say, “^cIs there not a lie in my right hand?”

Yahweh Forgives and Redeems

²¹“^aRemember these things, O Jacob,And Israel, for you are ^bMy servant;I have formed you, you are My servant;O Israel, you will ^cnot be forgotten by Me.²²“I have ^awiped out your transgressions like a thick cloudAnd your sins like a cloud.^bReturn to Me, for I have ^credeemed you.”²³^aShout for joy, O heavens, for Yahweh has done it!Make a loud shout, you lower parts of the earth;^bBreak forth into a shout of joy, you mountains,O forest, and every tree in it;For ^cYahweh has redeemed JacobAnd in Israel He ^dshows forth His beautiful glory.

²⁴Thus says Yahweh, your ^aRedeemer, and the one who ^bformed you from the womb, “I, Yahweh, am the maker of all things,^cStretching out the heavens by MyselfAnd spreading out the earth ¹all alone,

²⁵^aCausing the ¹omens of boasters to be annulled,And ²making fools out of diviners,^bCausing wise men to turn back,And ³making foolishness out of their knowledge,²⁶^aConfirming the word of His servant—And the counsel of His messengers He will complete—And being the One who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’And of the ^bcities of Judah, ‘^cThey shall be built.’And I will raise up her waste places again.²⁷“It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’And I will make your rivers ^adry.²⁸“It is I who says of ^aCyrus, ‘He is My shepherd!And all My good pleasure he will complete.’And saying of Jerusalem, ‘^bShe will be built,’And of the temple, ‘¹Your foundation will be laid.’”