BOOK 23 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Isaiah 40

Isaiah book home•Chapter 40 of 66•31 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Isaiah 40 Overview

A new major section opens with comfort for Jerusalem: her warfare will end, a voice prepares the LORD’s way, God’s word stands forever, the incomparable Creator comes as Shepherd, and weary people are renewed by waiting on Him.

IsaiahBook

40Chapter

31Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Isaiah 40

Coming from

Hezekiah proudly receives Babylonian envoys and displays his treasures; Isaiah announces that the wealth and royal descendants will one day be carried to Babylon, shifting the book’s horizon from Assyria to exile.

In this chapter

Leads into

The LORD summons nations to court, raises a conqueror from the east, reassures fearful Israel as His chosen servant, mocks idols unable to predict or act, and promises help to the poor and needy.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The perspective now looks beyond announced exile toward restoration. The chapter answers the fear that Babylon’s power or Israel’s exhaustion could defeat God’s promises.

The interpretive center of Isaiah 40 is the chapter’s own movement: god’s word outlasts human frailty. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God’s word outlasts human frailty

Grass withers, but the word of God stands forever.

The coming LORD combines power and tenderness

He rules with a strong arm yet gathers lambs and gently leads.

The Creator cannot be compared with idols or empires

His knowledge, power, and governance of the stars expose the absurdity of thinking Israel’s way is hidden from Him.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Matthew 3:1-3

Matthew identifies John the Baptist as the voice crying in the wilderness from Isaiah 40:3.

1 Peter 1:24-25

Peter quotes Isaiah 40:6-8 concerning the enduring word of the Lord.

Mark 1:1-3

Mark also applies the wilderness-way prophecy to John’s preparation for Jesus.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not isolate Isaiah 40:31 as a promise of limitless physical stamina.

Its central point is renewed strength for a weary people who trust the everlasting Creator.

Do not miss that the highway prepares for the LORD Himself.

The Gospels’ application to John therefore carries strong Christological significance.

Read Isaiah 40 watching for…

the command to comfort

the prepared highway

grass versus God’s enduring word

the Shepherd with a strong arm

renewed strength for the weary

Chapter outline6 sections

1-2The LORD speaks comfort to Jerusalem because her warfare is accomplished 3-8A voice prepares the LORD’s way, and human flesh fades while God’s word stands 9-11Zion is told to announce, Behold your God, who comes as ruler and shepherd 12-17No one can measure, direct, or compare with the Creator 18-26Idols cannot be compared with the One who calls the stars by name 27-31The everlasting God gives strength to the faint and renews those who wait on him

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:

And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven 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?

Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counseller hath taught him?

With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.

He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.

Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.