5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of Hosts: 6A time is coming when everything in your palace, which your ancestors have stored up to this day, will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left behind, said the LORD. 7And some of your sons, your own issue, whom you will have fathered, will be taken to serve as eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8Hezekiah declared to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “It means that a-safety is assured for-a my time.”
40 Comfort, oh comfort My people,
Says your God.
2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
And declare to her
That her term of service is over,
That her iniquity is expiated;
For she has received at the hand of the LORD
Double for all her sins.
3A voice rings out:
“Clear in the desert
A road for the LORD!
Level in the wilderness
A highway for our God!
4Let every valley be raised,
Every hill and mount made low.
Let the rugged ground become level
And the ridges become a plain.
5The Presence of the LORD shall appear,
And all flesh, as one, shall behold—
For the LORD Himself has spoken.”
6A voice rings out: “Proclaim!”
a-Another asks,-a “What shall I proclaim?”
“All flesh is grass,
All its goodness like flowers of the field:
7Grass withers, flowers fade
When the breath of the LORD blows on them.
Indeed, man is but grass:
8Grass withers, flowers fade—
But the word of our God is always fulfilled!”
9Ascend a lofty mountain,
O herald of joy to Zion;
Raise your voice with power,
O herald of joy to Jerusalem—
Raise it, have no fear;
Announce to the cities of Judah:
Behold your God!
10Behold, the Lord GOD comes in might,
And His arm wins triumph for Him;
See, His rewardb is with Him,
His recompense before Him.
11Like a shepherd He pastures His flock:
He gathers the lambs in His arms
And carries them in His bosom;
Gently He drives the mother sheep.
12Who measured the waters with the hollow of His hand,
And gauged the skies with a span,
And meted earth’s dust with a measure,c
And weighed the mountains with a scale
And the hills with a balance?
13Who has plumbed the mind of the LORD,
What man could tell Him His plan?
14Whom did He consult, and who taught Him,
Guided Him in the way of right?
Who guided Him in knowledge
And showed Him the path of wisdom?
15The nations are but a drop in a bucket,
Reckoned as dust on a balance;
The very coastlands He lifts like motes.
16Lebanon is not fuel enough,
Nor its beasts enough for sacrifice.
17All nations are as naught in His sight;
He accounts them as less than nothing.
18To whom, then, can you liken God,
What form compare to Him?
19The idol? A woodworker shaped it,
And a smith overlaid it with gold,
d-Forging links of silver.-d
20As a gift, he chooses the mulberryc—
A wood that does not rot—
Then seeks a skillful woodworker
To make a firm idol,
That will not topple.
21Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
Have you not been told
From the very first?
Have you not discerned
d-How the earth was founded?-d
22It is He who is enthroned above the vault of the earth,
So that its inhabitants seem as grasshoppers;
Who spread out the skies like gauze,
Stretched them out like a tent to dwell in.
23He brings potentates to naught,
Makes rulers of the earth as nothing.
24Hardly are they planted,
Hardly are they sown,
Hardly has their stem
Taken root in earth,
When He blows upon them and they dry up,
And the storm bears them off like straw.
25To whom, then, can you liken Me,
To whom can I be compared?
—says the Holy One.
26Lift high your eyes and see:
Who created these?
He who sends out their host by count,
Who calls them each by name:
Because of His great might and vast power,
Not one fails to appear.
27Why do you say, O Jacob,
Why declare, O Israel,
“My way is hid from the LORD,
My cause is ignored by my God”?
28Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is God from of old,
Creator of the earth from end to end.
He never grows faint or weary,
His wisdom cannot be fathomed.
29He gives strength to the weary,
Fresh vigor to the spent.
30Youths may grow faint and weary,
And young men stumble and fall;
31But they who trust in the LORD shall renew their strength
As eagles grow new plumes:f
They shall run and not grow weary,
They shall march and not grow faint.
41 Stand silent before Me, coastlands,
And let nations a-renew their strength.-a
Let them approach to state their case;
Let us come forward together for argument.
2Who has roused a victorb from the East,
Summoned him to His service?
Has delivered up nations to him,
And trodden sovereigns down?
Has rendered theirc swords like dust,
Theirc bows like wind-blown straw?
3He pursues them, he goes on unscathed;
No shackled is placed on his feet.
4Who has wrought and achieved this?
He who announced the generations from the start—
I, the LORD, who was first
And will be with the last as well.
5The coastlands look on in fear,
The ends of earth tremble.
They draw near and come;
6Each one helps the other,
Saying to his fellow, “Take courage!”
7The woodworker encourages the smith;
He who flattens with the hammer
[Encourages] him who pounds the anvil.
He says of the riveting, “It is good!”
And he fixes it with nails,
That it may not topple.
8But you, Israel, My servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen,
Seed of Abraham My friend—
9You whom I drew from the ends of the earth
And called from its far corners,
To whom I said: You are My servant;
I chose you, I have not rejected you—
10Fear not, for I am with you,
Be not frightened, for I am your God;
I strengthen you and I help you,
I uphold you with My victorious right hand.
11Shamed and chagrined shall be
All who contend with you;
They who strive with you
Shall become as naught and shall perish.
12You may seek, but shall not find
Those who struggle with you;
Less than nothing shall be
The men who battle against you.
13For I the LORD am your God,
Who grasped your right hand,
Who say to you: Have no fear;
I will be your help.
14Fear not, O worm Jacob,
O e-men of-e Israel:
I will help you
—declares the LORD—
I your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
15I will make of you a threshing board,
A new thresher, with many spikes;
You shall thresh mountains to dust,
And make hills like chaff.
16You shall winnow them
And the wind shall carry them off;
The whirlwind shall scatter them.
But you shall rejoice in the LORD,
And glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17The poor and the needy
Seek water,f and there is none;
Their tongue is parched with thirst.
I the LORD will respond to them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18I will open up streams on the bare hills
And fountains amid the valleys;
I will turn the desert into ponds,
The arid land into springs of water.
19I will plant cedars in the wilderness,
Acacias and myrtles and oleasters;
I will set cypresses in the desert,
Box trees and elms as well—
20That men may see and know,
Consider and comprehend
That the LORD’s hand has done this,
That the Holy One of Israel has wrought it.
21Submit your case, says the LORD;
Offer your pleas, says the King of Jacob.
22Let them approachg and tell us what will happen.
Tell us what has occurred,h
And we will take note of it;
Or announce to us what will occur,
That we may know the outcome.
23Foretell what is yet to happen,
That we may know that you are gods!
Do anything, good or bad,
That we may be awed and see.i
24Why, you are less than nothing,
Your effect is less than nullity;
One who chooses you is an abomination.
25I have roused him from the north, and he has come,
From the sunrise, one who invokes My name;
And he has trampled rulers like mud,
Like a potter treading clay.
26Who foretold this from the start, that we may note it;
From aforetime, that we might say, “He is right”?
Not one foretold, not one announced;
No one has heard your utterance!
27j-The things once predicted to Zion—
Behold, here they are!-j
And again I send a herald to Jerusalem.
28But I look and there is not a man;
Not one of them can predict
Or can respond when I question him.
29See, they are all nothingness,
Their works are nullity,
Their statues are naught and nil.
42 This is My servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one, in whom I delight.
I have put My spirit upon him,
He shall teach the true way to the nations.
2He shall not cry out or shout aloud,
Or make his voice heard in the streets.
3a-He shall not break even a bruised reed,
Or snuff out even a dim wick.-a
He shall bring forth the true way.
4He shall not grow dim or be bruised
Till he has established the true way on earth;
And the coastlands shall await his teaching.
5Thus said God the LORD,
Who created the heavens and stretched them out,
Who spread out the earth and what it brings forth,
Who gave breath to the people upon it
And life to those who walk thereon:
6I the LORD, in My grace, have summoned you,
And I have grasped you by the hand.
I created you, and appointed you
A b-covenant people,-b c-a light of nations-c—
7d-Opening eyes deprived of light,-d
Rescuing prisoners from confinement,
From the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
8I am the LORD, that is My name;
I will not yield My glory to another,
Nor My renown to idols.
9See, the things once predicted have come,
And now I foretell new things,
Announce
