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Isaiah 40

¹"Comfort! Comfort my People!" God says.
²Speak to Jerusalem's heart,
and cry out to her that her warfare is completed,
That her iniquity is paid for.
For she has received from the hand of the LORD,
Double for all her sins.
³The voice of one who shouts,
In the wilderness prepare YHWH's path
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
⁴Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be made low.
The uneven ground will become flat,
shall be And rough ground a plain.
⁵The glory of YHWH shall be revealed,
And everyone will see it together;
for the mouth of YHWH has declared it.
⁶Someone says, "Shout!"
Someone else said, "What shall I shout?"
All people are grass,
and all its graciousness is like the flower in the field.
⁷The grass withers, the flower fades.
Because YHWH's breath blows on it.
Indeed, the people are grass. ⁸The grass withers, the flower fades,
But our God's word will stand forever.
⁹Get up on a high mountain, you who give good news to Jerusalem!
Raise your voice with strength!
Raise it up! Don't be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
¹⁰Look, the Lord YHWH will come as a strong person,
His arm will rule for him.
Behold, his reward is with him,
and his wages are before him.
¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them at his chest.
Hill lead those that have their young gently.
¹²Who has measured the waters in the palm of his hand,
and measured heaven with a ruler,
and contained the earth's dust in a measure,
or weighed the mountains in scales,
or the hills in a balance?
¹³Who has directed the YHWH's Spirit,
or has taught him knowledge as a counselor?
¹⁴With whom did he take counsel, so he could be instructed?
Who instructed him in the way of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵Look! The nations are as a drop in a bucket,
and are accounted as the fine dust on a balance.
Look! he considers even the islands to be a very small thing.
¹⁶And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn;
Nor its animals enough for a sacrifice.
¹⁷All the nations are as nothing compared to him;
they are considered by him less than nothing, vanity.
¹⁸To whom then will you compare God?
Or what image do you think will represent him?
¹⁹As for the image, a workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.
²⁰One that can't afford to offer such an image chooses a tree that won't rot,
he finds a skillful workman to set up an engraved image, so it won't be moved.
²¹Have you not realized it yet?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been proclaimed to you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundation of the earth?
²²He is the one that sits on the earth's circle,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
And spreads them like a tent to live in.
²³He brings those who rule to vanity,
and makes the judges of the earth into emptiness.
²⁴They've barely been planted,
They've barely been sown,
Their shoot has barely taken root in the earth,
When he blows on them, they dry up, and a windstorm carries them away.
²⁵To whom will you compare me,
And who will be equal to me, says the Holy One.
²⁶Look up high, and see who has created these things.
He brings out their army in proper census order.
He calls them all by name.
By his abundant strength and great power, not one is missing.
²⁷Why do you say, Jacob?
Why do you speak, Israel?
"My way is hidden from YHWH,
and justice has passed away from my God?
²⁸Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
YHWH, the eternal God,
Creator of the world from end to end,
Does not grow weary or get tired
There's no searching out his wisdom.
²⁹He gives strength to the weary,
To the one without power he multiples strength.
³⁰Even young men become tired and grow weary,
and youths will surely stumble.
³¹But those who put their hope in YHWH renew strength,
They will climb with wings like eagles.
They will run and not get weary,
the will walk, and not be exhausted.

Average revision: 3 (Draft # 1 by individual translator)