¹“Take comfort, take comfort, my people”,

Says your God.

²“Speak kindly to Jerusalem,

And proclaim to her

That her warfare has been concluded,

That her iniquity has been propitiated;

That she has received double at the hand of the Lord

For all her sins.”

⁵And 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 said,

“Make a proclamation.”

And he said,

“What shall I proclaim?”

For the spirit of the Lord blows on it.

Truly,

The people are grass.

⁹Get up onto a high mountain,

Zion, which announces good news.

Raise your voice strongly,

Jerusalem, which announces good news.

Raise it; do not fear.

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God.”

¹⁰Behold, my Lord the Lord

Will come with strength,

And his arm will rule for him.

Behold, his reward is with him,

And his recompense is before him.

¹¹He will tend his flock like a shepherd

And gather lambs in his arm,

And he will carry them in his bosom

And lead dairy cattle along.

¹²Who has measured the waters in the palm of his hand

Or sized up the heavens by the span?

Or calculated the volume of the dust of the earth

With a third-ephah container

Or weighed in a balance the mountains,

And the hills in scales?

¹⁴With whom does he confer who can instruct him

And teach him in the way of justice,

And teach him knowledge

And indicate to him the way of understanding?

¹⁵Look, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

And they are counted as dust in the balance.

Look, he can lift up the coastlands

Like fine powder.

¹⁶Even Lebanon isn't enough to burn,

And its animals aren't enough as a burnt offering.

¹⁷All the nations are like nothing before him;

They are considered less than nothing and desolation by him.

¹⁸So to whom will you liken God,

And with what comparison

Will you draw a parallel with him?

¹⁹The artisan casts an idol,

And refines gold and overlays it,

And refines silver for chains.

²⁰As for the heave-offering of the impoverished,

He selects some wood which will not rot,

And finds himself a skilled artisan

To prepare an idol

Which will not be shaken.

²¹Have you not known,

Have you not heard,

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood

The foundations of the earth?

²²It is he who sits above the earth's sphere,

Whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

It is he who stretches out the heavens like fine cloth,

And spans them like a tent to dwell in,

²³Who reduces princes to nothing,

And makes the judges of the world desolate.

²⁴They certainly won't be planted,

They simply won't be sown;

Their main stem just will not strike root.

Also a wind will blow on them

And they will dry up,

And a storm will carry them away

Like chaff.

²⁵“So to whom will you liken me,

So that I will be comparable?”

Says the holy one.

²⁶“Raise your eyes and look.

Who created these things?

He who produced the array of them by number

– He calls them all by name –

By great strength and mighty power;

Not one is missing.

²⁷Jacob, why do you say,

And Israel, why do you declare,

‘My way is hidden from the Lord,

And my just deserts

Will be overlooked by my God?’

²⁸Have you not known,

Or have you not heard,

That the age-abiding God

– The Lord,

The creator of the ends of the earth –

Does not become exhausted

And does not become weary,

And that there is no fathoming

Of his understanding?

²⁹He gives the exhausted strength,

And he increases the vigour

Of those who have no energy.

³⁰But youths will become exhausted and weary,

And young men will surely stumble.

³¹But those who confide in the Lord

Will revive in strength;

They will soar in flight like eagles.

They will run

And not grow weary,

They will proceed

And not become exhausted.

Reference(s) in Chapter 40: v.3 ↔ Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:2, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23 ● v.4 ↔ Luke 3:5 ● v.5 ↔ Luke 3:6 ● v.6 ↔ 1 Peter 1:24 ● v.7 ↔ 1 Peter 1:24 ● v.8 ↔ 1 Peter 1:24, 1 Peter 1:25 ● v.13 ↔ Romans 11:34, 1 Corinthians 2:16.