Hearken to me, ye
that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the
Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and
to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
02 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah
that bare you: for I called him alone, and
blessed him, and increased him.
03 For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will
comfort all her waste places; and he will make
her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be
found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of
melody.
04 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto
me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me,
and I will make my judgment to rest for a light
of the people.
05 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone
forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the
isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall
they trust.
06 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look
upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall
vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax
old like a garment, and they that dwell therein
shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall
be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be
abolished.
07 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not
the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of
their revilings.
08 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment,
and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my
righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation
from generation to generation.
09 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the
Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the
generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the
waters of the great deep; that hath made the
depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass
over?
11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall
return, and come with singing unto Zion; and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they
shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and
mourning shall flee away.
12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art
thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that
shall die, and of the son of man which shall be
made as grass;
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13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath
stretched forth the heavens, and laid the
foundations of the earth; and hast feared
continually every day because of the fury of the
oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and
where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be
loosed, and that he should not die in the pit,
nor that his bread should fail.
15 But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the
sea, whose waves roared: The Lord of hosts is his
name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I
have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand,
that I may plant the heavens, and lay the
foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou
art my people.
17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which
hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his
fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of
trembling, and wrung them out.
18 There is none to guide her among all the sons
whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any
that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that
she hath brought up.
19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall
be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction,
and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I
comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of
all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they
are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of
thy God.
21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and
drunken, but not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that
pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have
taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling,
even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt
no more drink it again:
23 But I will put it into the hand of them that
afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow
down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy
body as the ground, and as the street, to them
that went over.
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