| 章 |
| 40:1 |
Comfort, comfort my people,says your God.
|
| 40:2 |
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,and cry to herthat her warfare is ended,that her iniquity is pardoned,that she has received from the LORD's handdouble for all her sins.
|
| 40:3 |
A voice cries:'In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD,make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
|
| 40:4 |
Every valley shall be lifted up,and every mountain and hill be made low;the uneven ground shall become level,and the rough places a plain.
|
| 40:5 |
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,and all flesh shall see it together,for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.'
|
| 40:6 |
A voice says, 'Cry!'And I said, 'What shall I cry?'All flesh is grass,and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
|
| 40:7 |
The grass withers, the flower fades,when the breath of the LORD blows upon it;surely the people is grass.
|
| 40:8 |
The grass withers, the flower fades;but the word of our God will stand for ever.
|
| 40:9 |
Get you up to a high mountain,O Zion, herald of good tidings;lift up your voice with strength,O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,lift it up, fear not;say to the cities of Judah,'Behold your God!'
|
| 40:10 |
Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might,and his arm rules for him;behold, his reward is with him,and his recompense before him.
|
| 40:11 |
He will feed his flock like a shepherd,he will gather the lambs in his arms,he will carry them in his bosom,and gently lead those that are with young.
|
| 40:12 |
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his handand marked off the heavens with a span,enclosed the dust of the earth in a measureand weighed the mountains in scalesand the hills in a balance?
|
| 40:13 |
Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD,or as his counselor has instructed him?
|
| 40:14 |
Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,and who taught him the path of justice,and taught him knowledge,and showed him the way of understanding?
|
| 40:15 |
Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,and are accounted as the dust on the scales;behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
|
| 40:16 |
Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
|
| 40:17 |
All the nations are as nothing before him,they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
|
| 40:18 |
To whom then will you liken God,or what likeness compare with him?
|
| 40:19 |
The idol! a workman casts it,and a goldsmith overlays it with gold,and casts for it silver chains.
|
| 40:20 |
He who is impoverished chooses for an offeringwood that will not rot;he seeks out a skilful craftsmanto set up an image that will not move.
|
| 40:21 |
Have you not known? Have you not heard?Has it not been told you from the beginning?Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
|
| 40:22 |
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
|
| 40:23 |
who brings princes to nought,and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
|
| 40:24 |
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,when he blows upon them, and they wither,and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
|
| 40:25 |
To whom then will you compare me,that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
|
| 40:26 |
Lift up your eyes on high and see:who created these?He who brings out their host by number,calling them all by name;by the greatness of his might,and because he is strong in powernot one is missing.
|
| 40:27 |
Why do you say, O Jacob,and speak, O Israel,'My way is hid from the LORD,and my right is disregarded by my God'?
|
| 40:28 |
Have you not known? Have you not heard?The LORD is the everlasting God,the Creator of the ends of the earth.He does not faint or grow weary,his understanding is unsearchable.
|
| 40:29 |
He gives power to the faint,and to him who has no might he increases strength.
|
| 40:30 |
Even youths shall faint and be weary,and young men shall fall exhausted;
|
| 40:31 |
but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength,they shall mount up with wings like eagles,they shall run and not be weary,they shall walk and not faint.
|
