39

1At that time, Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered. 2Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, the gold, the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them. 3Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and asked him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?”

Hezekiah said, “They have come from a country far from me, even from Babylon.”

4Then he asked, “What have they seen in your house?”

Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

5Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh of Armies: 6‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up until today, will be carried to Babylon. Nothing will be left,’ says Yahweh. 7‘They will take away your sons who will issue from you, whom you shall father, and they will be eunuchs in the king of Babylon’s palace.’”

8Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “Yahweh’s word which you have spoken is good.” He said moreover, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

40

1“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. 2“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”

3The voice of one who calls out,

“Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!

Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

4Every valley shall be exalted,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low.

The uneven shall be made level,

and the rough places a plain.

5Yahweh’s glory shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together;

for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”

6The voice of one saying, “Cry out!”

One said, “What shall I cry?”

“All flesh is like grass,

and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

7The grass withers,

the flower fades,

because Yahweh’s breath blows on it.

Surely the people are like grass.

8The grass withers,

the flower fades;

but the word of our God stands forever.”

9You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.

You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength!

Lift it up! Don’t be afraid!

Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”

10Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one,

and his arm will rule for him.

Behold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

11He will feed his flock like a shepherd.

He will gather the lambs in his arm,

and carry them in his bosom.

He will gently lead those who have their young.

12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

and marked off the sky with his span,

and calculated the dust of the earth in a measuring basket,

and weighed the mountains in scales,

and the hills in a balance?

13Who has directed Yahweh’s Spirit,

or has taught him as his counselor?

14Who did he take counsel with,

and who instructed him,

and taught him in the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding?

15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,

and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance.

Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

16Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.

17All the nations are like nothing before him.

They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

18To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness will you compare to him?

19A workman has cast an image,

and the goldsmith overlays it with gold,

and casts silver chains for it.

20He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot.

He seeks a skillful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved.

21Haven’t you known?

Haven’t you heard?

Haven’t you been told from the beginning?

Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?

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 out like a tent to dwell in,

23who brings princes to nothing,

who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

24They are planted scarcely.

They are sown scarcely.

Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.

He merely blows on them, and they wither,

and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

25“To whom then will you liken me?

Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes on high,

and see who has created these,

who brings out their army by number.

He calls them all by name.

by the greatness of his might,

and because he is strong in power,

not one is lacking.

27Why do you say, Jacob,

and speak, Israel,

“My way is hidden from Yahweh,

and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”

28Haven’t you known?

Haven’t you heard?

The everlasting God, Yahweh,

the Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint.

He isn’t weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

29He gives power to the weak.

He increases the strength of him who has no might.

30Even the youths faint and get weary,

and the young men utterly fall;

31but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.

They will mount up with wings like eagles.

They will run, and not be weary.

They will walk, and not faint.

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1“Keep silent before me, islands,

and let the peoples renew their strength.

Let them come near,

then let them speak.

Let’s meet together for judgment.

2Who has raised up one from the east?

Who called him to his feet in righteousness?

He hands over nations to him

and makes him rule over kings.

He gives them like the dust to his sword,

like the driven stubble to his bow.

3He pursues them

and passes by safely,

even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

4Who has worked and done it,

calling the generations from the beginning?

I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”

5The islands have seen, and fear.

The ends of the earth tremble.

They approach, and come.

6Everyone helps his neighbor.

They say to their brothers, “Be strong!”

7So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith.

He who smooths with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil,

saying of the soldering, “It is good;”

and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

8“But you, Israel, my servant,

Jacob whom I have chosen,

the offspring of Abraham my friend,

9you whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth,

and called from its corners,

and said to you, ‘You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away.’

10Don’t you be afraid, for I am with you.

Don’t be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you.

Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

11Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded.

Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.

12You will seek them, and won’t find them,

even those who contend with you.

Those who war against you will be as nothing,

as a nonexistent thing.

13For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand,

saying to you, ‘Don’t be afraid.

I will help you.’

14Don’t be afraid, you worm Jacob,

and you men of Israel.

I will help you,” says Yahweh.

“Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

15Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth.

You will thresh the mountains,

and beat them small,

and will make the hills like chaff.

16You will winnow them,

and the wind will carry them away,

and the whirlwind will scatter them.

You will rejoice in Yahweh.

You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

17The poor and needy seek water, and there is none.

Their tongue fails for thirst.

I, Yahweh, will answer them.

I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

18I will open rivers on the bare heights,

and springs in the middle of the valleys.

I will make the wilderness a pool of water,

and the dry land springs of water.

19I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness.

I will set cypress trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;

20that they may see, know, consider, and understand together,

that Yahweh’s hand has done this,

and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

21Produce your cause,” says Yahweh.

“Bring out your strong reasons!” says the King of Jacob.

22“Let them announce and declare to us what will happen!

Declare the former things, what they are,

that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them;

or show us things to come.

23Declare the things that are to come hereafter,

that we may know that you are gods.

Yes, do good, or do evil,

that we may be dismayed,

and see it together.

24Behold, you are nothing,

and your work is nothing.

He who chooses you is an abomination.

25“I have raised up one from the north, and he has come,

from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name,

and he shall come on rulers as on mortar,

and as the potter treads clay.

26Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know?

and before, that we may say, ‘He is right?’

Surely, there is no one who declares.

Surely, there is no one who shows.

Surely, there is no one who hears your words.

27I am the first to say to Zion, ‘Behold, look at them;’

and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.

28When I look, there is no man,

even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask, can answer a word.

29Behold, all of their deeds are vanity and nothing.

Their molten images are wind and confusion.

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1“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights:

I have put my Spirit on him.

He will bring justice to the nations.

2He will not shout,

nor raise his voice,

nor cause it to be heard in the street.

3He won’t break a bruised reed.

He won’t quench a dimly burning wick.

He will faithfully bring justice.

4He will not fail nor be discouraged,

until he has set justice in the earth,

and the islands wait for his law.”

5God Yahweh,

he who created the heavens and stretched them out,

he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it,

he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it, says:

6“I, Yahweh, have called you in righteousness.

I will hold your hand.

I will keep you,

and make you a covenant for the people,

as a light for the nations,

7to open the blind eyes,

to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon,

and those who sit in darkness out of the prison.

8“I am Yahweh.

That is my name.

I will not give my glory to another,

nor my praise to engraved images.

9Behold, the former things have happened

and I declare new things.

I tell you about them before they come up.”

10Sing to Yahweh a new song,

and his praise from the end of the earth,

you who go down to the sea,

and all that is therein,

the islands and their inhabitants.

11Let the wilderness and its cities raise their voices,

with the villages that Kedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing.

Let them shout from the top of the mountains!

12Let them give glory to Yahweh,

and declare his praise in the islands.

13Yahweh will go out like a mighty man.

He will stir up zeal like a man of war.

He will raise a war cry.

Yes, he will shout aloud.

He will triumph over his enemies.

14“I have been silent a long time.

I have been quiet and restrained myself.

Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.

15I will destroy mountains and hills,

and dry up all their herbs.

I will make the rivers islands,

and will dry up the pools.

16I will bring the blind by a way that they don’t know.

I will lead them in paths that they don’t know.

I will make darkness light before them,

and crooked places straight.

I will do these things,

and I will not forsake them.

17“Those who trust in engraved images,

who tell molten images,

‘You are our gods,’

will be turned back.

They will be utterly disappointed.

18“Hear, you deaf,

and look, you blind,

that you may see.

19Who is blind, but my servant?

Or who is as deaf as my messenger whom I send?

Who is as blind as he who is at peace,

and as blind as Yahweh’s servant?

20You see many things, but don’t observe.

His ears are open, but he doesn’t listen.

21It pleased Yahweh, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law

and make it honorable.

22But this is a robbed and plundered people.

All of them are snared in holes,

and they are hidden in prisons.

They have become captives, and no one delivers,

and a plunder, and no one says, ‘Restore them!’

23Who is there among you who will give ear to this?

Who will listen and hear for the time to come?

24Who gave Jacob as plunder,

and Israel to the robbers?

Didn’t Yahweh, he against whom we have sinned?

For they would not walk in his ways,

and they disobeyed his law.

25Therefore he poured the fierceness of his anger on him,

and the strength of battle.

It set him on fire all around, but he didn’t know.

It burned him, but he didn’t take it to heart.”