Isaiah 40
40
Isaiah 40
1¶ Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2Speak ye according to the heart of Jerusalem and cry unto her that her time is now fulfilled that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3¶ The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places made plain:
5And the glory of the Lord shall be manifested, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
6 The voice that said, Cry. And I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the mercy thereof is as the open flower of the field:
7The grass withers, the flower fades because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass.
8The grass withers, the open flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9¶ O Zion, that brings good tidings, go up into the high mountain; lift up thy voice with strength O bearer of good tidings of Jerusalem; lift it up, do not be afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young.
12¶ Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and prepared the heavens with his palm and with three fingers measured the dust of the earth and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills with weights?
13Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor has taught him?
14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him? Who taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed unto him the way of intelligence?
15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he causes the isles to disappear as dust.
16And all Lebanon is not sufficient for the fire, nor all the beasts thereof sufficient for the sacrifice.
17All the Gentiles are as nothing before him, and they are counted to him as vanity and as less than nothing.
18¶ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
19The workman prepares the graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and casts silver chains.
20He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto himself a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.
21Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not been taught since the land was founded?
22He is seated upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; he stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:
23He brings the powerful to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as if they had never been,
24As if they had never been planted, as if they had never been sown, as if their stock had never taken root in the earth; even blowing upon them, they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
25To whom then will ye liken me, or what shall ye compare me to? saith the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things; he brings out his host by number; he calls them all by their names; none shall be lacking by the greatness of his might and by the strength of his power.
27¶ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the God of the age is the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth? He does not faint, nor is he weary; and there is no one that can attain to his intelligence.
29He gives power to the faint; and to those that have no might he increases strength.
30The young men faint and are weary; the children stumble and fall;
31but those that wait for the Lord shall have new strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
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Isaiah 40: JUB
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The Jubilee Bible 2000 (JUB) by Ransom Press International
Isaiah 40
40
Encourage God's People
1Our God has said:
“Encourage my people!
Give them comfort.
2Speak kindly to Jerusalem
and announce:
Your slavery is past;
your punishment is over.
I, the Lord, made you pay
double for your sins.”
3 #
Si 48.10; Ba 5.7; Mt 3.3; Mk 1.3; Jn 1.23. #Lk 3.4-6. Someone is shouting:
“Clear a path in the desert!
Make a straight road
for the Lord our God.
4Fill in the valleys;
flatten every hill
and mountain.
Level the rough
and rugged ground.
5Then the glory of the Lord
will appear for all to see.
The Lord has promised this!”
6 #
Jas 1.10,11; 1 P 1.24,25. Someone told me to shout,
and I asked,
“What should I shout?”
We humans are merely grass,
and we last no longer
than wild flowers.
7At the Lord's command,
flowers and grass disappear,
and so do we.
8Flowers and grass fade away,
but what our God has said
will never change.
Your God Is Here!
9There is good news
for the city of Zion.
Shout it as loud as you can#40.9 There … can: Or “City of Jerusalem, you have good news. Shout it as loud as you can.”
from the highest mountain.
Don't be afraid to shout
to the towns of Judah:
“Your God is here!”
10 #
Is 62.11; Rev 22.12. Look! The powerful Lord God
is coming to rule
with his mighty arm.
He brings with him
what he has taken in war,
and he rewards his people.
11 #
Ez 34.15; Jn 10.11. The Lord cares for his nation,
just as shepherds care
for their flocks.
He carries the lambs
in his arms,
while gently leading
the mother sheep.
Who Compares with God?
12Did any of you measure
the ocean by yourself
or stretch out the sky
with your own hands?
Did you put the soil
of the earth in a bucket
or weigh the hills and mountains
on balance scales?
13 #
Ro 11.34; 1 Co 2.16. Has anyone told the Lord#40.13 the Lord: Or “the Lord's Spirit.”
what he must do
or given him advice?
14Did the Lord ask anyone
to teach him wisdom
and justice?
Who gave him knowledge
and understanding?
15 #
Ws 11.22; Si 10.16,17. To the Lord, all nations
are merely a drop in a bucket
or dust on balance scales;
all of the islands
are but a handful of sand.
16The cattle on the mountains
of Lebanon
would not be enough to offer
as a sacrifice to God,
and the trees would not
be enough for the fire.
17God thinks of the nations
as far less than nothing.
18 #
Ac 17.29. Who compares with God?
Is anything like him?
19Is an idol at all like God?
It is made of bronze
with a thin layer of gold,
and decorated with silver.
20 #
Ws 13.11-19; Let Jer 8-40. Or special wood may be chosen#40.20 Or … chosen: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. Two kinds of idols seem to be described: bronze idols covered with gold (verse 19) and wooden idols (verse 20).
because it doesn't rot—
then skilled hands
take care to make an idol
that won't fall on its face.
God Rules the Whole Earth
21Don't you know?
Haven't you heard?
Hasn't it been clear
since the time of creation?#40.21 Hasn't … creation: Or “Isn't it clear that God created the world?”
22God is the one who rules
the whole earth,
and we that live here
are merely insects.
He spread out the heavens
like a curtain or an open tent.
23God brings down rulers
and turns them into nothing.
24They are like flowers
freshly sprung up
and starting to grow.
But when God blows on them,
they wilt and are carried off
like straw in a storm.
25The holy God asks,
“Who compares with me?
Is anyone my equal?”
26 #
Ba 3.34,35. Look at the evening sky!
Who created the stars?
Who gave them each a name?
Who leads them like an army?
The Lord is so powerful
that none of the stars
are ever missing.
The Lord Gives Strength
27You people of Israel say,
“God pays no attention to us!
He doesn't care if we
are treated unjustly.”
But how can you say that?
28Don't you know?
Haven't you heard?
The Lord is the eternal God,
Creator of the earth.
He never gets weary or tired;
his wisdom cannot be measured.
29The Lord gives strength
to those who are weary.
30Even young people get tired,
then stumble and fall.
31But those who trust the Lord
will find new strength.
They will be strong like eagles
soaring upward on wings;
they will walk and run
without getting tired.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.