The Book of Isaiah (WEB)
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 was recovered. 39:2Hezekiah was glad of them, and shown them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and 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. 39:3Then came Isaiah the prophet to king Hezekiah, and said to him, What said these men? and from whence came they to you? Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country to me, even from Babylon. 39:4Then said he, What have they seen in your house? Hezekiah answered, All that is in my house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them. 39:5Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh of Hosts: 39:6Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, says Yahweh. 39:7Of your sons who shall issue from you, whom you shall father, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. 39:8Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of Yahweh which you have spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.
40:1Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God. 40:2Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and
cry 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. 40:3The voice of one who cries, Prepare you in the
wilderness the way of Yahweh; make level in the desert a highway for our God. 40:4Every valley
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made
level, and the rough places a plain: 40:5and the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together; for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it. 40:6The voice of one saying, Cry. One said,
What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it is as the flower of the field. 40:7The grass
withers, the flower fades, because the breath of Yahweh blows on it; surely the people is grass.
40:8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever. 40:9You 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!
40:10Behold, 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. 40:11He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he
will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those who have
their young. 40:12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the sky
with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in
scales, and the hills in a balance? 40:13Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh, or being his
counselor has taught him? 40:14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught
him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shown to him the way of
understanding? 40:15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small
dust of the balance: Behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing. 40:16Lebanon is not sufficient
to burn, nor the animals of it sufficient for a burnt offering. 40:17All the nations are as nothing
before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity. 40:18To whom then will you
liken God? or what likeness will you compare to him? 40:19The image, a workman has cast it, and
the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. 40:20He who is too impoverished
for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a skillful workman to set up
an engraved image, that shall not be moved. 40:21Have you not known? have yet not heard? has it
not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
40:22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers; who
stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in; 40:23who brings
princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth as vanity. 40:24Yes, they have not been
planted; yes, they have not been sown; yes, their stock has not taken root in the earth: moreover he
blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. 40:25To whom then
will you liken me, that I should be equal to him? says the Holy One. 40:26Lift up your eyes on high,
and see who has created these, who brings out their host 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. 40:27Why say you,
Jacob, and speak, Israel, My way is hid from Yahweh, and the justice due to me is passed away
from my God? 40:28Have you not known? have you not heard? The everlasting God, Yahweh, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn't faint, neither is weary; there is no searching of his
understanding. 40:29He gives power to the faint; and to him who has no might he increases strength.
40:30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 40:31but those who
wait for Yahweh shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall
run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.
World English Bible