Chapter 40

  Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  

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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.  

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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.  

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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:  

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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].  

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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:  

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  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people [is] grass.  

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  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.  

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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!  

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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.  

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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.  

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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?  

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  Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or [being] his counsellor hath taught him?  

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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?  

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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.  

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  And Lebanon [is] not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.  

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  All nations before him [are] as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.  

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  To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?  

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  The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.  

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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.  

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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?  

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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:  

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  That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.  

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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.  

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  To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.  

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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.  

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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?  

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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.  

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  He giveth power to the faint; and to [them that have] no might he increaseth strength.  

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  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:  

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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.  

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