Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God.
02 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.
03 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.
04 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:
05 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.
06 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:
07 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass.
08 The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but
the word of our God shall stand for ever.
09 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!
10 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.
11 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.
12 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?
13 Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or
being his counsellor hath taught him?
14 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?
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.
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16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the
beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and
they are counted to him less than nothing, and
vanity.
18 To whom then will ye liken God? or what
likeness will ye compare unto him?
19 The workman melteth a graven image, and the
goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and
casteth silver chains.
20 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.
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?
22 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:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he
maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 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.
25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be
equal? saith the Holy One.
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.
27 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?
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.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that
have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and
the young men shall utterly fall:
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; and
they shall walk, and not faint.
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