40:1 COMFORT, COMFORT My people, says your God. |
40:2 Speak tenderly to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her time of service {and} her warfare are ended, that [her punishment is accepted and] her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received [punishment] from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. |
40:3 A voice of one who cries: Prepare in the wilderness the way of the Lord [clear away the obstacles]; make straight {and} smooth in the desert a highway for our God! |
40:4 Every valley shall be lifted {and} filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked {and} uneven shall be made straight {and} level, and the rough places a plain. |
40:5 And the glory (majesty and splendor) of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. |
40:6 A voice says, Cry [prophesy]! And I said, What shall I cry? [The voice answered, Proclaim:] All flesh is as frail as grass, and all that makes it attractive [its kindness, its goodwill, its mercy from God, its glory and comeliness, however good] is transitory, like the flower of the field. |
40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely [all] the people are like grass. |
40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. |
40:9 O you who bring good tidings to Zion, get up to the high mountain. O you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God! |
40:10 Behold, the Lord God will come with might, and His arm will rule for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him. |
40:11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd: He will gather the lambs in His arm, He will carry them in His bosom and will gently lead those that have their young. |
40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, marked off the heavens with a [nine-inch] span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? |
40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? |
40:14 With whom did He take counsel, that instruction might be given Him? Who taught Him the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and showed Him the way of understanding? |
40:15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are counted as small dust on the scales; behold, He takes up the isles like a very little thing. |
40:16 And all Lebanon's [forests] cannot supply sufficient fuel, nor all its wild beasts furnish victims enough to burn sacrifices [worthy of the Lord]. |
40:17 All the nations are as nothing before Him; they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and emptiness (waste, futility, and worthlessness). |
40:18 To whom then will you liken God? Or with what likeness will you compare Him? |
40:19 The graven image! A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it. |
40:20 He who is so impoverished that he has no offering {or} oblation {or} rich gift to give [to his god is constrained to make a wooden offering, an idol; so he] chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to carve {and} set up an image that will not totter {or} deteriorate. |
40:21 [You worshipers of idols, you are without excuse.] Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? [These things ought to convince you of God's omnipotence and of the folly of bowing to idols.] Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? |
40:22 It is God Who sits above the circle (the horizon) of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; it is He Who stretches out the heavens like [gauze] curtains and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in, |
40:23 Who brings dignitaries to nothing, Who makes the judges {and} rulers of the earth as chaos (emptiness, falsity, and futility). |
40:24 Yes, these men are scarcely planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely does their stock take root in the earth, when [the Lord] blows upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind {or} tempest takes them away like stubble. |
40:25 To whom then will you liken Me, that I should be equal to him? says the Holy One. |
40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see! Who has created these? He Who brings out their host by number and calls them all by name; through the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing {or} lacks anything. |
40:27 Why, O Jacob, do you say, and declare, O Israel, My way {and} my lot are hidden from the Lord, and my right is passed over without regard from my God? |
40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not faint or grow weary; there is no searching of His understanding. |
40:29 He gives power to the faint {and} weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound]. |
40:30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and [selected] young men shall feebly stumble {and} fall exhausted; |
40:31 But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change {and} renew their strength {and} power; they shall lift their wings {and} mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint {or} become tired. |