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Chapter 51 |
| 1 | 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. |
| 2 |
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him
alone, and blessed him, and increased him. |
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3 | 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.
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| 4 | 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. |
| 5 |
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. |
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6 | 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. |
| 7
| 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. |
| 8 | 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. |
| 9 | 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.
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| 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; |
| 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.
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| 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:
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| 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. |
