ao:eng_webu
Isaiah 40
1“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.”
3The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of the LORD in ! Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
4Every valley shall be exalted, and every and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.
5The LORD’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.”
6The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades, because the LORD’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass.
8The grass withers, the flower fades; but of our God stands forever.”
9You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high . You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”
10Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11He will feed his like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with his span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket, and weighed the in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13Who has directed the LORD’s Spirit, or has taught him as his counselor?
14Who did he take counsel with, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance. Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
16Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its animals sufficient for a .
17All the nations are like nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
18To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to him?
19A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
20He who is too impoverished for such an chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.
21Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? Haven’t you been told from the beginning? Haven’t you 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 nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.
24They are planted scarcely. They are sown scarcely. Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground. He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
25“To whom then will you liken me? Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. By the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking.
27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God”?
28Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
30Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
31but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
Slow reading
Read Isaiah 40 three times
Guided passes through short verse groups: read it whole, watch the words, then pray it back. Phrases to stop on along the way, with deeper explanation held back until you have read the verses yourself.
Ask about this chapter
Have a question about Isaiah 40?
Ask anything about this chapter. Every answer names the verses it rests on and links straight to them, highlighted in the reader.
Study together
Questions on Isaiah 40
Every comment is tied to a place in the text: a verse, a span of verses, or one section of the study. Ask what you do not understand, and answer others from Scripture.
Sign in to ask a question or answer one. Reading always stays open to everyone.
What this chapter is saying
What is Isaiah 40 about?
Read the last four verses first, and notice that the chapter reaches strength for the weary only after thirty verses about how large God is.
28Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint. He isn’t weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
29He gives power to the weak. He increases the strength of him who has no might.
30Even the youths faint and get weary, and the young men utterly fall;
31but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.
- Written by
- Isaiah, opening the section of comfort that runs to chapter 55
- Written to
- a people facing exile, who their case had been overlooked, verse 27
- Why
- the turn from judgement to comfort: comfort my people, verse 1
The chapter begins with comfort, comfort my people, verses 1 and 2, and a voice calling in to prepare the way, verse 3, which the Gospels apply to John the Baptist, Mark 1:2-3.
Verses 6 to 8 set human frailty against God's word: all flesh is like grass, the grass withers, but the word of our God stands forever. That contrast is the foundation of everything that follows.
Verse 11 gives the gentlest picture in the chapter. He will feed his like a shepherd, gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those who have their young. The one who measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, verse 12, carries lambs.
From verses 12 to 26 the chapter piles up God's greatness: nations like a drop in a bucket, idols exposed as manufactured, rulers brought to nothing, stars called out by name. It is an argument, and verse 27 tells us what it is answering.
Verse 27 is the complaint: my way is hidden from Yahweh, my justice is passed over by my God. The answer in verses 28 to 31 is not a rebuke but a question, haven’t you known, and then strength for those who wait, with walking listed last after mounting up and running.
What the chapter does not tell us
The chapter does not say when the strength arrives or how long the waiting lasts. It says those who wait will renew their strength, and it leaves the timing with God rather than with the reader.
Questions this passage answers
Who is God?
God is the one living Creator who made everything and depends on nothing, and Scripture answers this question mainly by telling us his character rather than by defining his substance. When God described himself to Moses he said he is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth, and yet will by no means clear the guilty. The New Testament adds that this God is finally known in Jesus Christ, who has made him known.
Can the Bible be trusted?
Scripture claims to be true and invites examination rather than avoiding it. It says God's word is truth and that it stands when everything else fades, and the New Testament writers appeal to eyewitnesses, named places and public events rather than to private experience. Trust in Scripture is finally trust in the God who speaks in it, and the clearest reason a Christian gives for that trust is that Jesus treated these writings as God's own word.
What does the Bible say about fear?
Scripture never tells a frightened person that fear is imaginary. It says do not be afraid hundreds of times, and almost always attaches a reason rather than a technique: I am with you, I have redeemed you, you are of more value than sparrows. It also distinguishes the fear that must go from the fear of the Lord, which is commanded and which shrinks every smaller fear.