40:1 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
40:2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she
hath received from the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
40:3 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.
40:4 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.
40:5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh
together shall see [it]: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken
[it].
40:6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All
flesh [is] grass, and all its goodliness [is] as the flower of
the field:
40:7 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit
of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people [is] grass.
40:8 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our
God shall shall stand forever.
40:9 O Zion, that bringest good tidings, go up upon the high
mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy
voice with strength; lift [it] up, be not afraid; say to the
cities of Judah, Behold your God!
40:10 Behold, the LORD GOD will come with strong [hand], and his
arm will rule for him: behold, his reward [is] with him, and
his work before him.
40:11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the
lambs with his arm, and carry [them] in his bosom, [and] will
gently lead those that are with young.
40:12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and measured 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?
40:13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or [being] his
counselor hath taught him?
40:14 With whom took he counsel, and [who] instructed him, and
taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge,
and showed to him the way of understanding?
40:15 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.
40:16 And Lebanon [is] not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts of
it sufficient for a burnt-offering.
40:17 All nations before him [are] as nothing; and they are
counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
40:18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye
compare to him?
40:19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith
spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.
40:20 He that [is] so impoverished that he hath no oblation
chooseth a tree [that] will not rot; he seeketh for himself a
skillful workman to prepare a graven image [that] shall not be
moved.
40:21 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?
40:22 [It is] he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and
its inhabitants [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the
heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell
in:
40:23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges
of the earth as vanity.
40:24 Yes, they shall not be planted; yes, they shall not be
sown: yes, 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.
40:25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equaled?
saith the Holy One.
40:26 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.
40:27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way
is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over by my God?
40:28 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.
40:29 He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no
might he increaseth strength.
40:30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young
men shall utterly fall:
40:31 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; they shall walk, and not faint.
|