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Chapter 40 |
| 1 | Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people, saith your God. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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: |
| 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. |
| 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: |
| 7 | The grass
withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it:
surely the people is grass. |
|
8 | The grass withereth, the flower fadeth:
but the word of our God shall stand for ever. |
| 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! |
| 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. |
| 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. |
