UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

ISA C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24 C25 C26 C27 C28 C29 C30 C31 C32 C33 C34 C35 C36 C37 C38 C39 C40 C41 C42 C43 C44 C45 C46 C47 C48 C49 C50 C51 C52 C53 C54 C55 C56 C57 C58 C59 C60 C61 C62 C63 C64 C65 C66

UST ISA Chapter 40

◄ ISA 40 ► ║ ═ ©

40 Our God says, “Comfort my people!

Yes, comfort them!

2 Speak tenderly to the people of Jerusalem

and announce to them

that their time of suffering has ended.

Tell them that I have forgiven them for what they did wrong

and that I, Yahweh, have punished them enough

for all of their sins.”

3 I hear someone shouting,

“Make a road for Yahweh in the wilderness!

Yes, clear a straight path through the desert for our God!

4 Fill in the valleys

and flatten the mountains and hills.

Level the uneven ground

and smooth out the rough places.

5 Then Yahweh will show how glorious he is,

and people throughout the world will see it at the same time.”

This will surely happen, because Yahweh himself has said it will happen.

6 I heard someone say, “Shout!”

I responded, “What should I shout?”

The answer was, “People are temporary, like grass.

Their loyalty is completely unreliable, like wildflowers that bloom only briefly.

7 Grass dries up and flowers wilt

when Yahweh makes a hot wind blow on them.

Certainly people live only for a short time, like grass.

8 Yes, grass dries up and flowers wilt,

but our God always keeps his promises.”

9 You people of Jerusalem, you have good news to tell!

Go up on a high mountain and shout it out!

Shout it loudly, and do not be afraid!

Tell the people of the other cities of Judah,

“Listen, our God is coming!”

10 Listen! Yahweh the Lord is coming powerfully,

and he will use his great strength to rule.

Listen! He is bringing something good with him.

11 He will take care of his people

the way a shepherd takes care of his sheep.

It will be as if some of his people are young lambs

that he gently gathers and holds close to his chest,

and it will be as if others of his people are mother sheep

that he leads carefully as they are nursing their lambs.

12 No human being has used the hollow of his hand

to measure the water of the oceans.

No human being has measured the sky

by using the distance between his thumb and little finger as a unit.

No human being has determined how much dust is on the earth

by putting it in large baskets.

No human being has used a scale or a balance

to weigh the mountains and hills.

13 No one has ever understood how vast Yahweh’s Spirit is,

and no one has ever been his counselor and given him advice.

14 Yahweh has never consulted anyone to help him understand things.

He did not need anyone to teach him how to judge fairly.

No one has ever taught him anything he did not already know.

He did not need anyone to show him how to think wisely.

15 Listen! From Yahweh’s perspective, the nations are as insignificant

as one drop of water is to a whole bucketful of water.

They are as insignificant as dust on a set of scales,

which makes basically no difference in weighing.

Listen! Yahweh could pick up all the lands by the sea

as easily as he could pick up a tiny grain of sand on the beach.

16 If someone wanted to offer Yahweh the sacrifice he deserves,

the wood from all the trees in Lebanon would not make a big enough fire,

and there would not be enough animals there.

17 From Yahweh’s perspective, all the nations are so insignificant

it is as if they do not even exist.

18 So there is no one to whom one can compare God.

There is nothing at all that resembles him.

19 An idol is certainly not like him! A craftsman shapes an idol out of metal,

and then another worker covers it with a thin layer of gold

and makes silver chains to hang on it.

20 A poor person who cannot afford gold or silver

chooses a piece of wood that will not rot.

Then he finds a capable woodworker

to carve an idol for him from it

that will not topple over.

21 Surely all of you know this!

Surely you have heard about it!

Someone must have told you about it long ago.

People should have understood it since God created the earth.

22 God sits on his throne in heaven above the earth.

From there, its people look as tiny as grasshoppers to him.

When he created it, God stretched out the sky

the way people stretch out a curtain

or set up a tent to live in.

23 He is able to take away the power of rulers

and make those who judge other people’s cases insignificant.

24 They are like plants that are just beginning to grow from seeds,

whose roots are just beginning to go down into the ground.

It is as if God merely blows on them and they dry up,

and then a windstorm carries them away as if they were straw.

25 So the holy God says,

“There is no one to whom you can compare me!

No one is equal to me!”

26 Look up at the sky and realize

that God created all those stars!

He is the one who brings every one of them out at night.

He summons each star by name.

Because his power is so very great,

not a single star ever fails to appear.

27 You people of Israel should not say

that Yahweh is not aware of your situation

or that your God is not treating you fairly.

28 You must have heard and you must know

that Yahweh is the eternal God.

He created the entire earth.

He never gets tired or weary,

and no one can fully understand how wise he is.

29 He gives strength to people who have become exhausted,

and he makes those who have lost their energy become strong again.

30 Even young people get tired and become exhausted.

Strong young men can become so tired that they collapse.

31 But those who trust in Yahweh will become strong again.

They will be able to do things without apparent effort,

the way eagles spread their wings and float in the sky.

They will run for a long time and not become exhausted.

They will walk long distances and not get tired.