Isaiah 40

¹ 'Console my people, console them,' says your God.

² 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her period of service is ended, that her guilt hasbeen atoned for, that, from the hand of Yahweh, she has received double punishment for all her sins.'

³ A voice cries, 'Prepare in the desert a way for Yahweh. Make a straight highway for our God across thewastelands.

⁴ Let every val ey be fil ed in, every mountain and hil be level ed, every cliff become a plateau, everyescarpment a plain;

⁵ then the glory of Yahweh will be revealed and al humanity wil see it together, for the mouth of Yahwehhas spoken.'

⁶ A voice said, 'Cry aloud!' and I said, 'What shal I cry?' -'All humanity is grass and all its beauty like thewild flower's.

⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of Yahweh blows on them. (The grass is surely thepeople.)

⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains for ever.'

⁹ Go up on a high mountain, messenger of Zion. Shout as loud as you can, messenger of Jerusalem!Shout fearlessly, say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God.'

¹⁰ Here is Lord Yahweh coming with power, his arm maintains his authority, his reward is with him andhis prize precedes him.

¹¹ He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breastand leading to their rest the mother ewes.

¹² Who was it measured the water of the sea in the hol ow of his hand and calculated the heavens to thenearest inch, gauged the dust of the earth to the nearest bushel, weighed the mountains in scales, the hil s in abalance?

¹³ Who directed the spirit of Yahweh, what counsellor could have instructed him?

¹⁴ Whom has he consulted to enlighten him, to instruct him in the path of judgement, to teach himknowledge and show him how to understand?

¹⁵ See, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count as a grain of dust on the scales. See, coastsand islands weigh no more than fine powder.

¹⁶ The Lebanon is not enough for the burning fires nor its animals enough for the burnt offering.

¹⁷ Al the nations are as nothing before him, for him they count as nothingness and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom can you compare God? What image can you contrive of him?

¹⁹ The craftsman casts an idol, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it.

²⁰ Someone too poor to afford a sacrifice chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he then seeks out askil ed craftsman to set up an idol that wil not totter.

²¹ Did you not know, had you not heard? Was it not told you from the beginning? Have you notunderstood how the earth was set on its foundations?

²² He who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants of which are like grasshoppers,stretches out the heavens like a cloth, spreads them out like a tent to live in.

²³ He reduces princes to nothing, the rulers of the world to mere emptiness.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the soil, than he blowson them and they wither and the storm carries them away like chaff.

²⁵ 'To whom can you compare me, or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.

²⁶ Lift your eyes and look: he who created these things leads out their army in order, summoning each ofthem by name. So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.

²⁷ How can you say, Jacob, how can you repeat, Israel, 'My way is hidden from Yahweh, my rights areignored by my God'?

²⁸ Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, he created the remotest partsof the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary, he strengthens the powerless.

³⁰ Youths grow tired and weary, the young stumble and fal ,

³¹ but those who hope in Yahweh wil regain their strength, they wil sprout wings like eagles, thoughthey run they will not grow weary, though they walk they wil never tire.