God's People Are Comforted
40:1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God.
40:2Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem;
and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she hath received of Jehovah's hand
double for all her sins.
40:3The voice of one that crieth,
Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah;
make level in the desert a highway for our God.
40:4Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low;
and the uneven shall be made level,
and the rough places a plain:
40:5and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together;
for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
40:6The voice of one saying, Cry.
And one said, What shall I cry?
All flesh is grass,
and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
40:7The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,
because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it;
surely the people is grass.
40:8The grass withereth, the flower fadeth;
but the word of our God shall stand forever.
40:9O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion,
get thee up on a high mountain;
O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem,
lift up thy voice with strength;
lift it up, be not afraid;
say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold, your God!
40:10Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one,
and his arm will rule for him:
Behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
40:11He will feed his flock like a shepherd,
he will gather the lambs in his arm,
and carry them in his bosom,
and will gently lead those that have their young.
40:12Who 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?
40:13Who hath directed the Spirit of Jehovah,
or being his counsellor hath taught him?
40:14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him,
and taught him in the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed to him the way of understanding?
40:15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket,
and are accounted as the small dust of the balance:
Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
40:16And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering.
40:17All the nations are as nothing before him;
they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
40:18To whom then will ye liken God?
or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
40:19The image, a workman hath cast it,
and the goldsmith overlayeth it with gold,
and casteth for it silver chains.
40:20He that is too impoverished for such an oblation chooseth a tree
that will not rot;
he seeketh unto him a skilful workman
to set up a graven image, that shall not be moved.
40:21Have ye not known? have yet not heard?
hath it not been told you from the beginning?
have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
40:22It is he that sitteth above 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;
40:23that bringeth princes to nothing;
that maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
40:24Yea, they have not been planted; yea, they have not been sown;
yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth:
moreover he bloweth upon them, and they wither,
and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.
40:25To whom then will ye liken me,
that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One.
40:26Lift up your eyes on high, and see
who hath created these,
that bringeth out their host by number;
he calleth them all by name;
by the greatness of his might,
and for that he is strong in power,
not one is lacking.
40:27Why sayest thou, O Jacob,
and speakest, O Israel,
My way is hid from Jehovah,
and the justice due to me is passed away from my God?
40:28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?
The everlasting God,
Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary;
there is no searching of his understanding.
40:29He giveth power to the faint;
and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.
40:30Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall utterly fall:
40:31but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary;
they shall walk, and not faint.
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