Category: Isaiah

Help Not in Egypt but in God

1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help

Andrely on horses,

And trust in chariots because they are many

And in horsemen because they are very strong,

But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!

2 Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster

And does not retract His words,

But will arise against the house of evildoers

And against the help of the workers of iniquity.

3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God,

And their horses are flesh and not spirit;

So the Lordwill stretch out His hand,

And he who helps will stumble

And he who is helped will fall,

And all of them will come to an end together.

4 For thus says the Lordto me,

“As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey,

Against which a band of shepherds is called out,

Andhe will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise,

So will the Lordof hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”

5 Like flying birds so the Lordof hosts will protect Jerusalem.

He will protect and deliverit;

He will pass over and rescueit.

6 Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.

7 For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.

8 And the Assyrian will fall by a sword not of man,

And a sword not of man will devour him.

So he will not escape the sword,

And his young men will become forced laborers.

9 “His rock will pass away because of panic,

And his princes will be terrified at the standard,”

Declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/31-89dd3d81da214b76cd4f9256e54ee206.mp3?version_id=100—

The Glorious Future

1 Behold, a king will reign righteously

And princes will rule justly.

2 Each will be like a refuge from the wind

And a shelter from the storm,

Like streams of water in a dry country,

Like the shade of a huge rock in a parched land.

3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be blinded,

And the ears of those who hear will listen.

4 The mind of the hasty will discern the truth,

And the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak clearly.

5 No longer will the fool be called noble,

Or the rogue be spoken ofasgenerous.

6 For a fool speaks nonsense,

And his heart inclines toward wickedness:

To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the Lord,

To keep the hungry person unsatisfied

And to withhold drink from the thirsty.

7 As for a rogue, his weapons are evil;

He devises wicked schemes

To destroytheafflicted with slander,

Even thoughtheneedy one speaks what is right.

8 But the noble man devises noble plans;

And by noble plans he stands.

9 Rise up, you women who are at ease,

Andhear my voice;

Give ear to my word,

You complacent daughters.

10 Within a year anda fewdays

You will be troubled, O complacentdaughters;

For the vintage is ended,

Andthefruitgathering will not come.

11 Tremble, youwomenwho are at ease;

Be troubled, you complacentdaughters;

Strip, undress and putsackclothonyourwaist,

12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,

13 For the land of my peoplein whichthornsandbriars shall come up;

Yea, for all the joyful housesand forthe jubilant city.

14 Because the palace has been abandoned, the populated city forsaken.

Hill and watch-tower have become caves forever,

A delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;

15 Until the Spirit is poured out upon us from on high,

And the wilderness becomes a fertile field,

And the fertile field is considered as a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness

And righteousness will abide in the fertile field.

17 And the work of righteousness will be peace,

And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

18 Then my people will live in a peaceful habitation,

And in secure dwellings and in undisturbed resting places;

19 And it will hail when the forest comes down,

And the city will be utterly laid low.

20 How blessed will you be, you who sow beside all waters,

Who let out freely the ox and the donkey.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/32-c153b92c306caa78caaa7e19cf86f948.mp3?version_id=100—

The Judgment of God

1 Woe to you, O destroyer,

While you were not destroyed;

And he who is treacherous, whileothersdid not deal treacherously with him.

As soon as you finish destroying, you will be destroyed;

As soon as you cease to deal treacherously,otherswill deal treacherously with you.

2 O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for You.

Be their strength every morning,

Our salvation also in the time of distress.

3 At the sound of the tumult peoples flee;

At the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse.

4 Your spoil is gatheredasthe caterpillar gathers;

As locusts rushing about men rush about on it.

5 The Lordis exalted, for He dwells on high;

He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 And He will be the stability of your times,

A wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge;

The fear of the Lordis his treasure.

7 Behold, their brave men cry in the streets,

The ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are desolate, the traveler has ceased,

He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities,

He has no regard for man.

9 The land mournsandpines away,

Lebanon is shamedandwithers;

Sharon is like a desert plain,

And Bashan and Carmel losetheir foliage.

10 “Now I will arise,” says the Lord,

“Now I will be exalted, now I will be lifted up.

11 You have conceived chaff, you will give birth to stubble;

My breath will consume you like a fire.

12 The peoples will be burned to lime,

Like cut thorns which are burned in the fire.

13 “You who are far away, hear what I have done;

And you who are near, acknowledge My might.”

14 Sinners in Zion are terrified;

Trembling has seized the godless.

“Who among us can live with the consuming fire?

Who among us can live with continual burning?”

15 He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity,

He who rejects unjust gain

And shakes his hands so that they hold no bribe;

He who stops his ears from hearing about bloodshed

And shuts his eyes from looking upon evil;

16 He will dwell on the heights,

His refuge will be the impregnable rock;

His bread will be givenhim,

His water will be sure.

17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty;

They will behold a far-distant land.

18 Your heart will meditate on terror:

“Where is he who counts?

Where is he who weighs?

Where is he who counts the towers?”

19 You will no longer see a fierce people,

A people of unintelligible speech which no one comprehends,

Of a stammering tongue which no one understands.

20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts;

Your eyes will see Jerusalem, an undisturbed habitation,

A tent which will not be folded;

Its stakes will never be pulled up,

Nor any of its cords be torn apart.

21 But there the majesticOne,the Lord, will be for us

A place of riversandwide canals

On which no boat with oars will go,

And on which no mighty ship will pass—

22 For the Lordis our judge,

The Lordis our lawgiver,

The Lordis our king;

He will save us—

23 Your tackle hangs slack;

It cannot hold the base of its mast firmly,

Nor spread out the sail.

Then the prey of an abundant spoil will be divided;

The lame will take the plunder.

24 And no resident will say, “I am sick”;

The people who dwell there will be forgiventheiriniquity.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/33-3ff4d0a2cba64badd21694a7f8395007.mp3?version_id=100—

God’s Wrath against Nations

1 Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples!

Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it.

2 For the Lord’sindignation is against all the nations,

AndHiswrath against all their armies;

He has utterly destroyed them,

He has given them over to slaughter.

3 So their slain will be thrown out,

And their corpses will give off their stench,

And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.

4 And all the host of heaven will wear away,

And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll;

All their hosts will also wither away

As a leaf withers from the vine,

Or asonewithers from the fig tree.

5 For My sword is satiated in heaven,

Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom

And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.

6 The sword of the Lordis filled with blood,

It is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats,

With the fat of the kidneys of rams.

For the Lordhas a sacrifice in Bozrah

And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 Wild oxen will also fall with them

And young bulls with strong ones;

Thus their land will be soaked with blood,

And their dust become greasy with fat.

8 For the Lordhas a day of vengeance,

A year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

9 Its streams will be turned into pitch,

And its loose earth into brimstone,

And its land will become burning pitch.

10 It will not be quenched night or day;

Its smoke will go up forever.

From generation to generation it will be desolate;

None will pass through it forever and ever.

11 But pelican and hedgehog will possess it,

And owl and raven will dwell in it;

And He will stretch over it the line of desolation

And the plumb line of emptiness.

12 Its nobles—there is no one there

Whomthey may proclaim king—

And all its princes will be nothing.

13 Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,

Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;

It will also be a haunt of jackals

Andan abode of ostriches.

14 The desert creatures will meet with the wolves,

The hairy goat also will cry to its kind;

Yes, the night monster will settle there

And will find herself a resting place.

15 The tree snake will make its nest and layeggsthere,

And it will hatch and gatherthemunder its protection.

Yes, the hawks will be gathered there,

Every one with its kind.

16 Seek from the book of the Lord, and read:

Not one of these will be missing;

None will lack its mate.

For His mouth has commanded,

And His Spirit has gathered them.

17 He has cast the lot for them,

And His hand has divided it to them by line.

They shall possess it forever;

From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/34-413d8a046ada1653f0878e6eaba78e60.mp3?version_id=100—

Zion’s Happy Future

1 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,

And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;

Like the crocus

2 It will blossom profusely

And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the glory of the Lord,

The majesty of our God.

3 Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.

4 Say to those with anxious heart,

“Take courage, fear not.

Behold, your God will comewithvengeance;

The recompense of God will come,

But He will save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,

And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the wilderness

And streams in the Arabah.

7 The scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground springs of water;

In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,

Grassbecomesreeds and rushes.

8 A highway will be there, a roadway,

And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it,

But itwillbe for him who walksthatway,

And fools will not wanderon it.

9 No lion will be there,

Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;

These will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walkthere,

10 And the ransomed of the Lordwill return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

With everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will find gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/35-d1f34dca958aa6824a73e4e5c1f9bfe4.mp3?version_id=100—

Sennacherib Invades Judah

1 Now in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and seized them.

2 And the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to King Hezekiah with a large army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway of the fuller’s field.

3 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to him.

4 Then Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, “What is this confidence that you have?

5 I say, ‘Your counsel and strength for the war are only empty words.’ Now on whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me?

6 Behold, you rely on the staff of this crushed reed,evenon Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who rely on him.

7 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lordour God,’ is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar’?

8 Now therefore, come make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them.

9 How then can you repulse one official of the least of my master’s servants and rely on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?

10 Have I now come up without the Lord’sapproval against this land to destroy it? The Lordsaid to me, ‘Go up against this land and destroy it.’ ” ’ ”

11 Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, “Speak now to your servants in Aramaic, for we understandit;and do not speak with us in Judean in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.”

12 But Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me only to your master and to you to speak these words,andnot to the men who sit on the wall,doomedto eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?”

13 Then Rabshakeh stood and cried with a loud voice in Judean and said, “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.

14 Thus says the king, ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you;

15 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lordwill surely deliver us, this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

16 Do not listen to Hezekiah,’ for thus says the king of Assyria, ‘Make your peace with me and come out to me, and eat each of his vine and each of his fig tree and drink each of the waters of his own cistern,

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

18 Bewarethat Hezekiah does not mislead you, saying, “The Lordwill deliver us.” Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And when have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

20 Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the Lordwould deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’ ”

21 But they were silent and answered him not a word; for the king’s commandment was, “Do not answer him.”

22 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/36-75e1f76c4fe169ee5e9808fbbfaf788b.mp3?version_id=100—

Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Help

1 And when King Hezekiah heardit,he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of the Lord.

2 Then he sent Eliakim who was over the household with Shebna the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, rebuke and rejection; for children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver.

4 Perhaps the Lordyour God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lordyour God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”

5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

6 Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.” ’ ”

8 Then Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.

9 When he heardthemsay concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has come out to fight against you,” and when he heardithe sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

10 “Thus you shall say to Hezekiah king of Judah, ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.”

11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. So will you be spared?

12 Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them,evenGozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden whowerein Telassar?

13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim,and ofHena and Ivvah?’ ”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

14 Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lordand spread it out before the Lord.

15 Hezekiah prayed to the Lordsaying,

16 “O Lordof hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthronedabovethe cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

17 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sentthemto reproach the living God.

18 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have devastated all the countries and their lands,

19 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

20 Now, O Lordour God, deliver us from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, Lord, are God.”

God Answers through Isaiah

21 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sentwordto Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,

22 this is the word that the Lordhas spoken against him:

“She has despised you and mocked you,

The virgin daughter of Zion;

She has shakenherhead behind you,

The daughter of Jerusalem!

23 Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?

And against whom have you raisedyourvoice

And haughtily lifted up your eyes?

Against the Holy One of Israel!

24 Through your servants you have reproached the Lord,

And you have said, ‘With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains,

To the remotest parts of Lebanon;

And I cut down its tall cedarsandits choice cypresses.

And I will go to its highest peak, its thickest forest.

25 I dugwellsand drank waters,

And with the sole of my feet I dried up

All the rivers of Egypt.’

26 Have you not heard?

Long ago I did it,

From ancient times I planned it.

Now I have brought it to pass,

That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps.

27 Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,

They were dismayed and put to shame;

They wereasthe vegetation of the field andasthe green herb,

Asgrass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.

28 But I know your sitting down

And your going out and your coming in

And your raging against Me.

29 Because of your raging against Me

And because your arrogance has come up to My ears,

Therefore I will put My hook in your nose

And My bridle in your lips,

And I will turn you back by the way which you came.

30 “Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward.

32 For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the Lordof hosts will perform this.” ’

33 “Therefore, thus says the Lordconcerning the king of Assyria, ‘He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield, or throw up a siege ramp against it.

34 By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he will not come to this city,’ declares the Lord.

35 ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’ ”

Assyrians Destroyed

36 Then the angel of the Lordwent out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead.

37 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returnedhomeand lived at Nineveh.

38 It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/37-2648eb731b259ddd35d38a4cd7140202.mp3?version_id=100—

Hezekiah Healed

1 In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.’ ”

2 Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,

3 and said, “Remember now, O Lord, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4 Then the word of the Lordcame to Isaiah, saying,

5 “Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of your father David, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city.” ’

7 “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lordwill do this thing that He has spoken:

8 Behold, I will cause the shadow on the stairway, which has gone down with the sun on the stairway of Ahaz, to go back ten steps.” So the sun’sshadowwent back ten steps on the stairway on which it had gone down.

9 A writing of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery:

10 I said, “In the middle of my life

I am to enter the gates of Sheol;

I am to be deprived of the rest of my years.”

11 I said, “I will not see the Lord,

The Lordin the land of the living;

I will look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world.

12 Like a shepherd’s tent my dwelling is pulled up and removed from me;

As a weaver I rolled up my life.

He cuts me off from the loom;

From day until night You make an end of me.

13 I composedmy souluntil morning.

Like a lion—so He breaks all my bones,

From day until night You make an end of me.

14 Like a swallow,likea crane, so I twitter;

I moan like a dove;

My eyes look wistfully to the heights;

O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.

15 “What shall I say?

For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it;

I will wander about all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.

16 O Lord, bythesethingsmenlive,

And in all these is the life of my spirit;

O restore me to health and let me live!

17 Lo, formy ownwelfare I had great bitterness;

It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness,

For You have cast all my sins behind Your back.

18 For Sheol cannot thank You,

Death cannot praise You;

Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your faithfulness.

19 It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;

A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

20 The Lordwill surely save me;

So we will play my songs on stringed instruments

Allthedays of our life at the house of the Lord.”

21 Now Isaiah had said, “Let them take a cake of figs and apply it to the boil, that he may recover.”

22 Then Hezekiah had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/38-112c08d333ea0be6f06aee29b3411361.mp3?version_id=100—

Hezekiah Shows His Treasures

1 At that time Merodach-baladan son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.

2 Hezekiah was pleased, and showed themallhis treasure house, the silver and the gold and the spices and the precious oil and his whole armory and all that was found in his treasuries. There was nothing in his house nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where have they come to you?” And Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

4 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasuries that I have not shown them.”

5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lordof hosts,

6 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house and all that your fathers have laid up in store to this day will be carried to Babylon; nothing will be left,’ says the Lord.

7 ‘Andsomeof your sons who will issue from you, whom you will beget, will be taken away, and they will become officials in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lordwhich you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “For there will be peace and truth in my days.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/39-a0bda92f6d4eff6a9b0ba36e36d1c177.mp3?version_id=100—

The Greatness of God

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

2 “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’shand

Double for all her sins.”

3 A voice is calling,

“Clear the way for the Lordin the wilderness;

Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.

4 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;

5 Then the glory of the Lordwill be revealed,

And all flesh will seeittogether;

For the mouth of the Lordhas spoken.”

6 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.

7 The grass withers, the flower fades,

When the breath of the Lordblows upon it;

Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers, the flower fades,

But the word of our God stands forever.

9 Get yourself up on a high mountain,

O Zion, bearer of good news,

Lift up your voice mightily,

O Jerusalem, bearer of good news;

Liftitup, do not fear.

Say to the cities of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10 Behold, the Lord Godwill come with might,

With His arm ruling for Him.

Behold, His reward is with Him

And His recompense before Him.

11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock,

In His arm He will gather the lambs

And carrythemin His bosom;

He will gently lead the nursingewes.

12 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?

13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,

Or as His counselor has informed Him?

14 With whom did He consult andwhogave Him understanding?

Andwhotaught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge

And informed Him of the way of understanding?

15 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.

16 Even Lebanon is not enough to burn,

Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering.

17 All the nations are as nothing before Him,

They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.

18 To whom then will you liken God?

Or what likeness will you compare with Him?

19 As forthe idol, a craftsman casts it,

A goldsmith plates it with gold,

And a silversmithfashionschains of silver.

20 He who is too impoverished forsuchan offering

Selects a tree that does not rot;

He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman

To prepare an idol that will not totter.

21 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?

22 It is He whosits above thecircle 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.

23 Heit iswho reduces rulers to nothing,

Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.

24 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.

25 “To whom then will you liken Me

That I would behisequal?” says the Holy One.

26 Lift up your eyes on high

And see who has created thesestars,

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 ofHispower,

Not oneof themis missing.

27 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”?

28 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.

29 He gives strength to the weary,

And tohim wholacks might He increases power.

30 Though youths grow weary and tired,

And vigorous young men stumble badly,

31 Yet those who wait for the Lord

Will gain new strength;

They will mount upwithwings like eagles,

They will run and not get tired,

They will walk and not become weary.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/80/32k/ISA/40-78fd959b9b8954fde2ca3fc44f9bdc6c.mp3?version_id=100—