---
title: "Isaiah 40 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/isaiah/40/
description: "The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to… Isaiah 40 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Isaiah 40

Isaiah 40 is chapter 40 of 66 in the Book of Isaiah. Here are all 31 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to forgive their sins. God's almighty power and majesty.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Isaiah 40 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. “Be consoled, be consoled, O my people!” says your God.
2. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call out to her! For her malice has reached its end. Her iniquity has been forgiven. She has received double for all her sins from the hand of the Lord.
3. The voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight the paths of our God, in a solitary place.
4. Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be straightened, and the uneven will become level ways.
5. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And all flesh together will see that the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6. The voice of one saying, “Cry out!” And I said, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field.
7. The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. For the Spirit of the Lord has blown over it. Truly, the people are like grass.
8. The grass has dried up, and the flower has fallen. But the Word of our Lord remains for eternity.”
9. You who evangelize Zion, climb a high mountain! You who evangelize Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah: “Behold, your God!”
10. Behold, the Lord God will arrive in strength, and his arm will rule. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work is before him.
11. He will pasture his flock like a shepherd. He will gather together the lambs with his arm, and he will lift them up to his bosom, and he himself will carry the very young.
12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and who has weighed the heavens with his palm? Who has suspended the mass of the earth with three fingers, and who has weighed the mountains on a balance and the hills on a scale?
13. Who has assisted the Spirit of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor and has revealed things to him?
14. With whom has he consulted? And who has instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and guided him to knowledge, and revealed the way of understanding to him?
15. Behold, the nations are like a drop of water in a bucket, and they are considered as the smallest grain on a balance. Behold, the islands are like a little dust.
16. And Lebanon will not be sufficient to start a fire, and its animals will not be sufficient for a burnt offering.
17. All the nations in his sight are as if they did not exist, and they are considered by him as if they were nothingness and emptiness.
18. Therefore, to whom would you liken God? Or with what image would you replace him?
19. Should the workman cast a statue? Or has the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?
20. He has chosen strong wood that will not decay. The skillful artisan seeks a way to set up an idol that cannot be moved.
21. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been announced to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?
22. He is the One who sits upon the globe of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts. He extends the heavens as if they were nothing, and he spreads them out like a tent, in which to dwell.
23. He has brought those who examine what is secret to nothingness. He has brought the judges of the earth to emptiness.
24. And certainly, their stalk was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the ground. He has suddenly blown across them, and they have withered, and a whirlwind will carry them away like chaff.
25. “And to whom would you compare me or equate me?” says the Holy One.
26. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things. He leads forth their army by number, and he calls them all by name. Because of the fullness of his strength and robustness and virtue, not one of them was left behind.
27. Why do you say this, O Jacob, and why do you speak this way, O Israel? “My way has been hidden from the Lord, and my judgment escaped notice by my God.”
28. Do you not know, or have you not heard? The Lord is the eternal God, who has created the limits of the earth. He does not diminish, and he does not struggle. Neither is his wisdom searchable.
29. It is he who gives strength to the weary, and it is he who increases fortitude and strength in those who are failing.
30. Servants will struggle and fail, and young men will fall into infirmity.
31. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will take up wings like eagles. They will run and not struggle. They will walk and not tire.

## Isaiah 40 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Consolamini, consolamini, popule meus, dicit Deus vester.
2. Loquimini ad cor Jerusalem, et advocate eam, quoniam completa est malitia ejus, dimissa est iniquitas illius: suscepit de manu Domini duplicia pro omnibus peccatis suis.
3. Vox clamantis in deserto: Parate viam Domini, rectas facite in solitudine semitas Dei nostri.
4. Omnis vallis exaltabitur, et omnis mons et collis humiliabitur, et erunt prava in directa, et aspera in vias planas:
5. et revelabitur gloria Domini, et videbit omnis caro pariter quod os Domini locutum est.
6. Vox dicentis: Clama. Et dixi: Quid clamabo? Omnis caro fœnum, et omnis gloria ejus quasi flos agri.
7. Exsiccatum est fœnum, et cecidit flos, quia spiritus Domini sufflavit in eo. Vere fœnum est populus:
8. exsiccatum est fœnum, et cecidit flos; verbum autem Domini nostri manet in æternum.
9. Super montem excelsum ascende, tu qui evangelizas Sion; exalta in fortitudine vocem tuam, qui evangelizas Jerusalem: exalta, noli timere. Dic civitatibus Juda: Ecce Deus vester:
10. ecce Dominus Deus in fortitudine veniet, et brachium ejus dominabitur: ecce merces ejus cum eo, et opus illius coram illo.
11. Sicut pastor gregem suum pascet, in brachio suo congregabit agnos, et in sinu suo levabit; fœtas ipse portabit.
12. Quis mensus est pugillo aquas, et cælos palmo ponderavit? quis appendit tribus digitis molem terræ, et libravit in pondere montes, et colles in statera?
13. Quis adjuvit spiritum Domini? aut quis consiliarius ejus fuit, et ostendit illi?
14. cum quo iniit consilium, et instruxit eum, et docuit eum semitam justitiæ, et erudivit eum scientiam, et viam prudentiæ ostendit illi?
15. Ecce gentes quasi stilla situlæ, et quasi momentum stateræ reputatæ sunt; ecce insulæ quasi pulvis exiguus.
16. Et Libanus non sufficiet ad succendendum, et animalia ejus non sufficient ad holocaustum.
17. Omnes gentes quasi non sint, sic sunt coram eo, et quasi nihilum et inane reputatæ sunt ei.
18. Cui ergo similem fecisti Deum? aut quam imaginem ponetis ei?
19. Numquid sculptile conflavit faber? aut aurifex auro figuravit illud, et laminis argenteis argentarius?
20. Forte lignum et imputribile elegit; artifex sapiens quærit quomodo statuat simulacrum, quod non moveatur.
21. Numquid non scitis? numquid non audistis? numquid non annuntiatum est vobis ab initio? numquid non intellexistis fundamenta terræ?
22. Qui sedet super gyrum terræ, et habitatores ejus sunt quasi locustæ; qui extendit velut nihilum cælos, et expandit eos sicut tabernaculum ad inhabitandum;
23. qui dat secretorum scrutatores quasi non sint, judices terræ velut inane fecit.
24. Et quidem neque plantatus, neque satus, neque radicatus in terra truncus eorum; repente flavit in eos, et aruerunt, et turbo quasi stipulam auferet eos.
25. Et cui assimilastis me, et adæquastis? dicit Sanctus.
26. Levate in excelsum oculos vestros, et videte quis creavit hæc: qui educit in numero militiam eorum, et omnes ex nomine vocat; præ multitudine fortitudinis et roboris, virtutisque ejus, neque unum reliquum fuit.
27. Quare dicis, Jacob, et loqueris, Israël: Abscondita est via mea a Domino, et a Deo meo judicium meum transivit?
28. Numquid nescis, aut non audisti? Deus sempiternus Dominus, qui creavit terminos terræ: non deficiet, neque laborabit, nec est investigatio sapientiæ ejus.
29. Qui dat lasso virtutem, et his qui non sunt, fortitudinem et robur multiplicat.
30. Deficient pueri, et laborabunt, et juvenes in infirmitate cadent;
31. qui autem sperant in Domino mutabunt fortitudinem, assument pennas sicut aquilæ: current et non laborabunt, ambulabunt et non deficient.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- cf. CCC ¶ 719: The Spirit of Christ in the Fullness of Time ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 990: "I Believe in the Resurrection of the Body" ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 754: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sun, Dec 6, 2026: Second Sunday of Advent — First Reading, Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11
- Wed, Dec 9, 2026: Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent — First Reading, Isaiah 40:25-31
- Wed, Dec 16, 2026: Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent — Alleluia, See Isaiah 40:9-10
- Tue, Dec 7, 2027 (computed): St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church — First Reading, Isaiah 40:1-11

2 more dates through December 31, 2028, in the [liturgical calendar](https://blessbible.app/calendar/).

Citations as published in the USCCB liturgical calendar (principal Mass, first option). Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).