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1 | Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. |
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2 | 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. |
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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. |
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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: |
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5 | 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. |
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6 | 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: |
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7 | The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of
the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. |
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8 | The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our
God shall stand for ever. |
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9 | 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! |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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13 | Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his
counsellor hath taught him? |
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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? |
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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. |
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17 | All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to
him less than nothing, and vanity. |
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18 | To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye
compare unto him? |
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19 | The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith
spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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: |
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23 | That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of
the earth as vanity. |
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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. |
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25 | To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the
Holy One. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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. |
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29 | He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might
he increaseth strength. |
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30 | Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men
shall utterly fall: |
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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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