Isaiah 40

Read the chapter

¹“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. ✦ ²“Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her guilt has been removed, That she has received of the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.” ✦ ³¶The voice of one calling out, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ✦ ⁴“Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the uneven ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; ✦ ⁵Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ✦ ⁶A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?” All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. ✦ ⁷The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; The people are indeed grass! ✦ ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. ✦ ⁹¶Go up on a high mountain, Zion, messenger of good news, Raise your voice forcefully, Jerusalem, messenger of good news; Raise it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” ✦ ¹⁰Behold, the Lord God will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His compensation is with Him, And His reward before Him. ✦ ¹¹Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in the fold of His robe; He will gently lead the nursing ewes. ✦ ¹²¶Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, And measured the heavens with a span, And calculated the dust of the earth with a measure, And weighed the mountains in a balance And the hills in a pair of scales? ✦ ¹³Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, Or as His counselor has informed Him? ✦ ¹⁴With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge, And informed Him of the way of understanding? ✦ ¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. ✦ ¹⁶Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its animals enough for a burnt offering. ✦ ¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. ✦ ¹⁸¶To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? ✦ ¹⁹As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. ✦ ²⁰He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. ✦ ²¹¶Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to 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 stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to live in. ✦ ²³It is He who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. ✦ ²⁴Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. ✦ ²⁵“To whom then will you compare Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One. ✦ ²⁶Raise your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who brings out their multitude by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing. ✦ ²⁷¶Why do you say, Jacob, and you assert, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”? ✦ ²⁸Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is unsearchable. ✦ ²⁹He gives strength to the weary, And to the one who lacks might He increases power. ✦ ³⁰Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, ✦ ³¹Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. ✦

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.

← Isaiah 39 Isaiah 41 →