A Voice is Calling...

Isaiah 40 

“Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.

“Speak kindly to Jerusalem;


And call out to her, 

that her warfare has ended,


That her iniquity has been removed,


That she has received of the Lord’s hand
 Double for all her sins.”

A voice is calling,


“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness;


Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

 

“Let every valley be lifted up,


And every mountain and hill be made low;


And let the rough ground become a plain,


And the rugged terrain a broad valley;

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,


And all flesh will see it together;


For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A 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.

The grass withers, the flower fades,


When the breath of the Lord blows upon it;


Surely the people are grass.

The grass withers, 

the flower fades,


But the word of our God stands forever.

Get yourself up on a high mountain,


O Zion, bearer of good news,


Lift up your voice mightily,
 O Jerusalem, 

bearer of good news;


Lift it up, do not fear.


Say to the cities of Judah,


“Here is your God!”

Behold, the Lord God will come with might,


With His arm ruling for Him.


Behold, His reward is with Him


And His recompense before Him.

Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,


In His arm He will gather the lambs


And carry them in His bosom;


He will gently lead the nursing ewes.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,


And marked off the heavens by the span,


And calculated the dust of the earth by the measure,


And weighed the mountains in a balance


And the hills in a pair of scales?

 

Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,


Or as His counselor has informed Him?

With 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?

Behold, 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.

Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,


Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

All the nations are as nothing before Him,


They are regarded by Him as less than nothing 

and meaningless.

To whom then will you liken God?


Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

 

As for the idol, a craftsman casts it,


A goldsmith plates it with gold,


And a silversmith fashions chains of silver.

 

He 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.

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?

It 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.

 

He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,


Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

Scarcely 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.

“To whom then will you liken Me


That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high


And see who has created these stars,


The One who leads forth their host 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.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,


“My way is hidden from the Lord,


And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?

Do 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 inscrutable.

He gives strength to the weary,


And to him who lacks might He increases power.

Though youths grow weary and tired,


And vigorous young men stumble badly,

Yet 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."

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