Isaiah 40

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¹“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. ✦ ²“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the Lord’s hand Double for all her sins.” ✦ ³The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. ✦ ⁴Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; ✦ ⁵The 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 he said, “What shall I cry?” “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 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 with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him. ✦ ¹¹He will 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. ✦ ¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? ✦ ¹³Who 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 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 nothing, And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. ✦ ¹⁸To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? ✦ ¹⁹The workman molds an image, The goldsmith overspreads it with gold, And the silversmith casts silver chains. ✦ ²⁰Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution Chooses a tree that will not rot; He seeks for himself a skillful workman To prepare a carved image that will not totter. ✦ ²¹Have 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 stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. ✦ ²³He brings the 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“Towhom 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; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing. ✦ ²⁷Why 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. 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 wait on the Lord 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. ✦

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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