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Chapter 40
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1
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Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. |
2
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the
spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people
is grass. |
8
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The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word
of our God shall stand for ever. |
9
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being
his counsellor hath taught him? |
14
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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
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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
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And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts
thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. |
17
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All nations before him are as nothing; and they are
counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. |
18
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To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will
ye compare unto him? |
19
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The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith
spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. |
20
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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
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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
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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
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That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the
judges of the earth as vanity. |
24
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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
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To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal?
saith the Holy One. |
26
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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
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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
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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
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He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have
no might he increaseth strength. |
30
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Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young
men shall utterly fall: |
31
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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. |
