Isaiah 40 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

Comfort for God’s People

(cf. Luk 3:4–6 )

Isa 40:1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Isa 40:2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare[fn] is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.

Isa 40:3

Isa 40:3A voice cries:[fn]
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isa 40:4

Isa 40:4Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.

Isa 40:5

Isa 40:5And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

The Word of God Stands Forever

Isa 40:6

Isa 40:6A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said,[fn] “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its beauty[fn] is like the flower of the field.

Isa 40:7

Isa 40:7The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the LORD blows on it;
surely the people are grass.

Isa 40:8

Isa 40:8The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.

The Greatness of God

Isa 40:9

Isa 40:9Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;[fn]
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;[fn]
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”

Isa 40:10

Isa 40:10Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.

Isa 40:11

Isa 40:11He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.

Isa 40:12

Isa 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?

Isa 40:13

Isa 40:13Who has measured[fn] the Spirit of the LORD,
or what man shows him his counsel?

Isa 40:14

Isa 40:14Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?

Isa 40:15

Isa 40:15Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

Isa 40:16

Isa 40:16Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

Isa 40:17

Isa 40:17All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

Isa 40:18

Isa 40:18To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?

Isa 40:19

Isa 40:19An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.

Isa 40:20

Isa 40:20He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood[fn] that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.

Isa 40:21

Isa 40:21Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

Isa 40:22

Isa 40:22It 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 like a tent to dwell in;

Isa 40:23

Isa 40:23who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

Isa 40:24

Isa 40:24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

Isa 40:25

Isa 40:25To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

Isa 40:26

Isa 40:26Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.

Isa 40:27

Isa 40:27Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Isa 40:28

Isa 40:28Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.

Isa 40:29

Isa 40:29He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Isa 40:30

Isa 40:30Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;

Isa 40:31

Isa 40:31but they who wait for 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.

See the ESV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

ESV Footnotes

(40:2)

Or hardship

(40:3)

Or A voice of one crying

(40:6)

Revocalization based on Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Vulgate; Masoretic Text And someone says

(40:6)

Or all its constancy

(40:9)

Or O herald of good news to Zion

(40:9)

Or O herald of good news to Jerusalem

(40:13)

Or has directed

(40:20)

Or He chooses valuable wood

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For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

Isaiah Chapter 40 — Additional Translations: