Isaiah 40

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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 Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.” ✦ ³The voice of one who calls out, “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness! Make a level highway in the desert for our God. ✦ ⁴Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain. ✦ ⁵Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” ✦ ⁶The voice of one saying, “Cry!” 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 Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. ✦ ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.” ✦ ⁹You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. 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 Yahweh 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 flock 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 mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? ✦ ¹³Who has directed Yahweh’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 burnt offering. ✦ 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 offering chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved. ✦ ²¹Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard, yet? 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 like 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 Yahweh, and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?” ✦ ²⁸Haven’t you known? Haven’t you heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, 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 Yahweh 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. ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

In this chapter

Concept The Holy One of Israel

Where this chapter connects

Jer 10 ·10 Isa 41 ·9 Isa 49 ·9 Isa 40 ·8 Isa 51 ·7 Isa 46 ·6 Isa 44 ·6 Ps 102 ·6

Christ at the center

Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).

How Isaiah 40 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Seminary

★ Start hereCommentaryThe Book of Isaiah (NICOT)John N. Oswalt · Paid · evangelical
The standard evangelical commentary on Isaiah — thorough and devotionally warm.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Isaiah videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Isaiah 40YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Isaiah 40David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on IsaiahMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Isaiah 40Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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