Bible Gateway passage: Isaiah 40 - New King James Version (2024)

God’s People Are Comforted^(A)

40“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!”
Says your God.
²“Speak ^[a]comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
^(B)For she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.”

^3(C)The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
^(D)“Prepare the way of the Lord;
^(E)Make straight ^[b]in the desert
A highway for our God.
⁴Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
^(F)The crooked places shall be made ^[c]straight
And the rough places smooth;
⁵The ^(G)glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

⁶The voice said, “Cry out!”
And ^[d]he said, “What shall I cry?”

^(H)“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
⁷The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.
⁸The grass withers, the flower fades,
But ^(I)the word of our God stands forever.”

⁹O Zion,
You who bring good tidings,
Get up into the high mountain;
O Jerusalem,
You who bring good tidings,
Lift up your voice with strength,
Lift it up, be not afraid;
Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”

¹⁰Behold, the Lord God shall come ^[e]with a strong hand,
And ^(J)His arm shall rule for Him;
Behold, ^(K)His reward is with Him,
And His ^[f]work before Him.
¹¹He will ^(L)feed His flock like a shepherd;
He will gather the lambs with His arm,
And carry them in His bosom,
And gently lead those who are with young.

^12(M)Who has measured the ^[g]waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a ^[h]span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
^13(N)Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
¹⁴With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And ^(O)taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,
And are counted as the small dust on the scales;
Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
¹⁶And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
¹⁷All nations before Him are as ^(P)nothing,
And ^(Q)they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.

¹⁸To whom then will you ^(R)liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
^19(S)The workman molds an image,
The goldsmith overspreads it with gold,
And the silversmith casts silver chains.
²⁰Whoever is too impoverished for such ^[i]a contribution
Chooses a tree that will not rot;
He seeks for himself a skillful workman
^(T)To prepare a carved image that will not totter.

^21(U)Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told 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 ^(V)stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a ^(W)tent to dwell in.
²³He ^[j]brings the ^(X)princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.

²⁴Scarcely shall they be planted,
Scarcely shall they be sown,
Scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth,
When He will also blow on them,
And they will wither,
And the whirlwind will take them away like stubble.

²⁵“To^(Y) whom then will you liken Me,
Or to whom shall I be equal?” says the Holy One.
²⁶Lift up your eyes on high,
And see who has created these things,
Who brings out their host by number;
^(Z)He calls them all by name,
By the greatness of His might
And the strength of His power;
Not one is missing.

^27(AA)Why do you say, O Jacob,
And speak, O Israel:
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
And my just claim is passed over by my God”?
²⁸Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
^(AB)His understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
³⁰Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
³¹But those who ^(AC)wait on the Lord
^(AD)Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.