Isaiah 40

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¹“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. ✦ ²“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the Lord has punished her twice over for all her sins.” ✦ ³Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! ✦ ⁴Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places. ✦ ⁵Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” ✦ ⁶A voice said, “Shout!” I asked, “What should I shout?” “Shout that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field. ✦ ⁷The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the Lord. And so it is with people. ✦ ⁸The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.” ✦ ⁹O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!” ✦ ¹⁰Yes, the Sovereign Lord is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes. ✦ ¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young. ✦ ¹²Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale? ✦ ¹³Who is able to advise the Spirit of the Lord? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him? ✦ ¹⁴Has the Lord ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice? ✦ ¹⁵No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand. ✦ ¹⁶All the wood in Lebanon’s forests and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of our God. ✦ ¹⁷The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth. ✦ ¹⁸To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him? ✦ ¹⁹Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains? ✦ ²⁰Or if people are too poor for that, they might at least choose wood that won’t decay and a skilled craftsman to carve an image that won’t fall down! ✦ ²¹Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant? ✦ ²²God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them. ✦ ²³He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing. ✦ ²⁴They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither. The wind carries them off like chaff. ✦ ²⁵“To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. ✦ ²⁶Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing. ✦ ²⁷O Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights? ✦ ²⁸Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. ✦ ²⁹He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. ✦ ³⁰Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. ✦ ³¹But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow 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.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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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