Isaiah 40

¹ ‘Console my people, console them’ says your God.

² ‘Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her that her time of service is ended, that her sin is atoned for, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh double punishment for all her crimes.’

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

⁴ Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be laid low, let every cliff become a plain, and the ridges a valley;

⁵ then the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed and all mankind shall see it; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.’

⁶ A voice commands: ‘Cry!’ and I answered, ‘What shall I cry?’ – ‘All flesh is grass and its beauty like the wild flower’s.

⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of Yahweh blows on them. (The grass is without doubt the people.)

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

⁹ Go up on a high mountain, joyful messenger to Zion. Shout with a loud voice, joyful messenger to Jerusalem. Shout without fear, say to the towns of Judah, ‘Here is your God’.

¹⁰ Here is the Lord Yahweh coming with power, his arm subduing all things to him. The prize of his victory is with him, his trophies all go before him.

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

¹² Who was it measured the water of the sea in the hollow of his hand and calculated the dimensions of the heavens, gauged the whole earth to the bushel, weighed the mountains in scales, the hills in a balance?

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

¹⁴ Whom has he consulted to enlighten him, and to learn the path of justice and discover the most skilful ways?

¹⁵ See, the nations are like a drop on the pail’s rim, they count as a grain of dust on the scales. See, the islands weigh no more than fine powder.

¹⁶ Lebanon is not enough for the fires nor its beasts for the holocaust.

¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing in his presence, for him they count as nothingness and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom could you liken God? What image could you contrive of him?

¹⁹ A craftsman casts the figure, a goldsmith plates it with gold and casts silver chains for it.

²¹ Did you not know, had you not heard? Was it not told you from the beginning? Have you not understood how the earth was founded?

²² He lives above the circle of the earth, its inhabitants look like grasshoppers. He has stretched out the heavens like a cloth, spread them like a tent for men to live in.

²³ He reduces princes to nothing, he annihilates the rulers of the world.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, than he blows on them. Then they wither and the storm carries them off like straw.

²⁵ ‘To whom could you liken me and who could be my equal?’ says the Holy One.

²⁶ Lift your eyes and look. Who made these stars if not he who drills them like an army, calling each one 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 insist, Israel, ‘My destiny is hidden from Yahweh, my rights are ignored by my God’?

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

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

³⁰ Young men may grow tired and weary, youths may stumble,

³¹ but those who hope in Yahweh renew their strength, they put out wings like eagles. They run and do not grow weary, walk and never tire.