The LORD the comforter of His people
40
📚✭“Comfort,comfort my people”,
says your God.
2 📚“Speak compassionately
to Jerusalem and cry out
to her,
that her warfare is ended,
that her wickedness
is pardoned;
for she has received
from the LORD’s hand double✭
for all her sins”.
3 📚The voice of one who
cries out in the wilderness:
“Prepare✭✭ the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 📚✭Every valley will be exalted,
and every mountain
and hill will be made low,
and the crooked✭ places
will be made straight✭,
and the rough places
a plain;
5 📚✭And the glory of the LORD
will be revealed,
and all flesh will see it
together;
for the mouth of the LORD
has spoken it”.
6 📚The voice said,
“Cry out✭!” And he said,
“What shall I cry out?”
“All flesh is grass✭,
and all its beauty is
like the flower
of the field.
7 📚The grass withers,
the flower fades,
because the Spirit
of the LORD blows✭ on it.
Surely the people are
grass.
8 📚The grass withers,
the flower fades✭,
but the word of our God
will stand forever”.
9 📚O Zion,
you who bring
good tidings✭,
go up onto the high mountain✭!
O Jerusalem,
you who bring good tidings,
lift up your voice with strength!
Lift it up;
do not be afraid✭.
Say to the cities of Judah,
“See your God✭!”
10 📚✭See,
the Lord God will come
with strong hand,
and his arm will rule
for him.
See, his reward is
with him,
and his wage accompanies
him.
11 📚He will feed his flock
like a shepherd✭.
He will gather the lambs
with his arm,
and carry them in
his bosom✭,
and will gently lead those
who have young.
Basis of comfort – God’s greatness
12 📚✭Who has measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand,
and marked off the heavens
with the span,
and calculated the dust of the earth
in a measuring basket,
and weighed the mountains
in scales,
and the hills in a balance?
13 📚Who has directed the Spirit
of the LORD,
or as his counsellor has
taught him?
14 📚With whom did he take
counsel,
and who instructed
him,
and taught him in the path
of judgment,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way
of understanding?
15 📚✭Look,
the nations are like
a drop in a bucket,
and are regarded like fine dust
on the balance.
See, he lifts up the islands
like a very little thing.
16 📚✭And Lebanon is not
sufficient for burning,
nor its beasts sufficient
for a burnt offering.
17 📚✭All nations before him
are as nothing,
and they are regarded by him
as less than nothing,
and emptiness.
18 📚✭To whom then will you
liken God?
Or with what likeness will
you compare him?
19 📚As for an idol,
the craftsman puts
it in a mold,
and the goldsmith overlays
it with gold,
and molds silver chains.
20 📚He who is too poor
for such an offering
chooses a tree that
will not rot.
He seeks for himself a skillful
craftsman to prepare a carved
image that will not totter.
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?
22 📚He it is who sits
above the circle✭
of the earth,
and its inhabitants are
like grasshoppers.
He stretches out✭ the heavens
like a curtain,
and spreads them out
like a tent to dwell in.
23 📚✭He brings the princes
to nothing.
He makes the judges
of the earth worthless.
24 📚Even as they are planted,
even as they are sown,
even as their stock takes
root in the ground,
he merely blows on them,
and they wither,
and the whirlwind takes
them away like stubble.
25 📚✭“To whom then will you
compare me,
or who is my equal?”
says the Holy One.
26 📚✭Lift up your eyes on high,
and see who has created
these things, who brings out
their starry host by number✭.
He calls them all by name,
by the greatness
of his might.
Because he is strong
in power not one fails.
27 📚✭Why do you say,
O Jacob, and speak,
O Israel, “My way is hidden
from the LORD,
and my just claim is passed
over by my God?”
28 📚Have you not known,
have you not heard that
the everlasting God,
the LORD✭,
the Creator of the ends
of the earth,
neither grows faint nor
becomes weary✭?
There is no searching
of his understanding✭.
29 📚He gives power to the faint,
and he increases the strength✭ of
those who have no might.
30 📚✭Even the youths will grow faint
and be weary,
and the young men will utterly fall,
31 📚✭But those who wait on
the LORD will renew their
strength.
They will rise up with wings
like eagles.
They will run and not be weary,
and they will walk
and not faint.