| 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. | ||