Bible-Reading.comIsaiah 40
1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her time of suffering is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of Jehovah's hand double for all her sins.
3The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight in the desert a highway for our God!
4Every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places a plain.
5And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.
6A voice saith, Cry. And he saith, What shall I cry? -- All flesh is grass, and all the comeliness thereof as the flower of the field.
7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, for the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God abideth for ever.
9O Zion, that bringest glad tidings, get thee up into a high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest glad tidings, lift up thy voice with strength: lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with might, and his arm shall rule for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him.
11He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom; he will gently lead those that give suck.
12Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with his span, and grasped the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in scales?
13Who hath directed the Spirit of Jehovah, and, as his counsellor, hath taught him?
14With whom took he counsel, and who gave him intelligence, and instructed him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are esteemed as a drop of the bucket, and as the fine dust on the scales; behold, he taketh up the isles as an atom.
16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering.
17All the nations are as nothing before him; they are esteemed by him less than a cipher, and vanity.
18To whom then will ye liken God? and what likeness will ye compare unto him?
19The workman casteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains for it.
20He that is impoverished, so that he hath no offering, chooseth a tree that doth not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilled workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.
21-- Do ye not know? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood the foundation of the earth?
22It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a gauze curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in;
23that bringeth the princes to nothing, that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely hath their stock taken root in the earth, but he also bloweth upon them and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.
25To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high, and see! Who hath created these things, bringing out their host by number? He calleth them all by name; through the greatness of his might and strength of power, not one faileth.
27Why sayest thou, Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and my right is passed away from my God?
28Dost thou not know, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not nor tireth? There is no searching of his understanding.
29He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.
30Even the youths shall faint and shall tire, and the young men shall stumble and fall;
31but they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not tire; they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 41
1Keep silence before me, islands; and let the peoples renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us draw near together to judgment.
2Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness calleth to its foot? He gave the nations before him, and caused him to have dominion over kings; he gave them as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow.
3He pursued them, he passed on in safety, by a way he had never come with his feet.
4Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, the first; and with the last, I am HE.
5The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth trembled: they drew near, and came.
6They helped every one his neighbour, and each said to his brother, Take courage.
7And the artizan encouraged the founder, he that smootheth with the hammer him that smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fasteneth it with nails, that it be not moved.
8But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend
9-- thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from the extremities thereof, and to whom I said, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee and not rejected thee,
10-- Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
11Lo, all that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded; they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish.
12Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them -- them that contend with thee; they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
13For I, Jehovah, thy God, hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
14Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15Behold, I have made of thee a new sharp threshing instrument having double teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat small the mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff;
16thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them; and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17The afflicted and the needy seek water, and there is none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I, Jehovah, will answer them, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs.
19I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine, and box-tree together;
20that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
21Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forward your arguments, saith the King of Jacob.
22Let them bring them forward, and declare to us what shall happen: shew the former things, what they are, that we may give attention to them, and know the end of them; -- or let us hear things to come:
23declare the things that are to happen hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be astonished, and behold it together.
24Behold, ye are less than nothing, and your work is of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you. ...
25I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come, -- from the rising of the sun, he who will call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as on mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay.
26Who hath declared it from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, It is right? Indeed, there is none that declareth; no, none that sheweth; no, none that heareth your words.
27The first, I said to Zion, Behold, behold them! and to Jerusalem, I will give one that bringeth glad tidings.
28And I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, -- and there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word.
29Behold, they are all vanity, their works are nought, their molten images are wind and emptiness.