39 Envoys from Babylon

39:1 At that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. ²And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. ³Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” ⁴He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”

⁵Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: ⁶Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. ⁷And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ⁸Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”

40 Comfort for God’s People

40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. ²Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare[1] is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

³A voice cries:^[2]“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 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.

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

⁶A voice says, “Cry!” And I said,[3] “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty[4] is like the flower of the field. ⁷The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

The Greatness of God

⁹Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news;^[5]lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news;[6] lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” ¹⁰Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. 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.

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? ¹³Who has measured[7] the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 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? 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. ¹⁶Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. ¹⁷All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? ¹⁹An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. ²⁰He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood[8] that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

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? 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; ²³who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

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.

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

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”? 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. ²⁹He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. ³⁰Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 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.

[1] Or time of service [2] Or a voice of one crying [3] Revocalization based on Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Vulgate; Masoretic Text And someone says [4] Or all its constancy [5] Or O herald of good news to Zion [6] Or O herald of good news to Jerusalem [7] Or has directed [8] Or He chooses valuable wood

41 Fear Not, For I Am with You

41:1 Listen to me in silence, O coastlands; let the peoples renew their strength; let them approach, then let them speak; let us together draw near for judgment.

²Who stirred up one from the east whom victory meets at every step?^[9]He gives up nations before him, so that he tramples kings underfoot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. ³He pursues them and passes on safely, by paths his feet have not trod. ⁴Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.

⁵The coastlands have seen and are afraid; the ends of the earth tremble; they have drawn near and come. ⁶Everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, “Be strong!” ⁷The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith, and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved.

⁸But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; ⁹you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; ¹⁰fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

¹¹Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. ¹²You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. ¹³For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”

¹⁴Fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel! I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. ¹⁵Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff; ¹⁶you shall winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the tempest shall scatter them. And you shall rejoice in the Lord; in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

¹⁷When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst, I the Lord will answer them; I the God of Israel will not forsake them. ¹⁸I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. ¹⁹I will put in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive. I will set in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together, ²⁰that they may see and know, may consider and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Futility of Idols

²¹Set forth your case, says the Lord; bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. ²²Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come. ²³Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; do good, or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified.^[10]²⁴Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing; an abomination is he who chooses you.

²⁵I stirred up one from the north, and he has come, from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name; he shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. ²⁶Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. ²⁷I was the first to say[11] to Zion, “Behold, here they are!” and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. ²⁸But when I look there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. ²⁹Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.

[9] Or whom righteousness calls to follow? [10] Or that we may both be dismayed and see [11] Or Formerly I said