Isaiah 40:4 (YLT)

Passage

Every valley is raised up, And every mountain and hill become low, And the crooked place hath become a plain, And the entangled places a valley.

Nearby Context

Isaiah 40:2 Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, That her warfare hath been completed, That accepted hath been her punishment, That she hath received from the hand of Jehovah Double for all her sins.

Isaiah 40:3 A voice is crying--in a wilderness--Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, Make straight in a desert a highway to our God.

Isaiah 40:4 Every valley is raised up, And every mountain and hill become low, And the crooked place hath become a plain, And the entangled places a valley.

Isaiah 40:5 And revealed hath been the honour of Jehovah, And seen <FI>it<Fi> have all flesh together, For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.

Isaiah 40:6 A voice is saying, `Call,' And he said, `What do I call?' All flesh <FI>is<Fi> grass, and all its goodliness <FI>is<Fi> As a flower of the field:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "valley", "raised", "mountain", "hill", "become", "crooked", "place", and "hath". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "valley" and "raised", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "A voice is crying--in a wilderness--Prepare ye..." into verse 5's "And revealed hath been the honour of...", so "valley" and "raised" belong inside that flow. In Isaiah context, the local focus is the Holy One of Israel, judgment and restoration, the servant of the LORD, and Zion's hope.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "valley" and "raised" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.