Isaiah 40
The Scriptures (ISR 1998)

1“Comfort, comfort My people!” says your Elohim.

2“Speak to the heart of Yerushalayim, and cry out to her, that her hard service is completed, that her crookedness is pardoned, that she has received from the hand of יהוה double for all her sins.”

3The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of יהוה; make straight in the desert a highway for our Elohim.

4“Let every valley be raised, and every mountain and hill made low. And the steep ground shall become level, and the rough places smooth.

5“And the esteem of יהוה shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see it. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken.”

6The voice said, “Cry out!” and he said, “What do I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.

7“Grass shall wither, the flower shall fade, when the Spirit of יהוה has blown on it! Truly the people is grass!

8“Grass shall wither, the flower shall fade, but the Word of our Elohim stands forevera.”

9You who bring good news to Tsiyon, get up into the high mountain. You who bring good news to Yerushalayim, lift up your voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid. Say to the cities of Yehuḏah, “See your Elohim!”

10See, the Master יהוה comes with a strong hand, and His arm rules for Him. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.

11He feeds His flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in His bosom, gently leading those who are with young.

12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured the heavens with a span, and contained the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?

13Who has meted out the Spirit of יהוה, or as His counsellor taught Him?

14With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of right-ruling? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?

15See, nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are reckoned as dust on the balance. See, He lifts up isles as fine dust.

16And Leḇanon is not enough to burn, nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

17All nations before Him are as a non-entity, and they are reckoned by Him as less than a speck, and emptiness.

18And to whom would you liken Ěl? And what likeness would you compare to Him?

19The workman moulds a graven image, and the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains.

20He who is too poor for such an offering chooses a tree that does not rot. He seeks for himself a skilled craftsman to prepare a carved image that does not totter.

21Did you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in,

23who brings princes to naught, shall make the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24Hardly have they been planted, hardly have they been sown, hardly has their stock taken root in the earth, when He shall blow on them and they wither, and a whirlwind take them away like stubble.

25“And to whom then do you liken Me, or to whom am I compared?” says the Set-apart One.

26Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who has created these? He who is bringing out their host by number, He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power – not one is missing.

27Why do you say, O Ya‛aqoḇ, and speak, O Yisra’ĕl, “My way is hidden from יהוה, and my rights are overlooked by my Elohim”?

28Did you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting Elohim, יהוה, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.

29He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

30Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men stumble and fall,

31but those who wait on יהוה renew their strength, they raise up the wing like eagles, they run and are not weary, they walk and do not faint.

Isaiah 39
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