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The Prophecy
of Isaias 40
Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.
Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her:
for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven:
she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for
all her sins.
The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the
way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the
paths of our God.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and
hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become
straight, and the rough ways plain.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all
flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken.
The voice of one, saying: Cry. And I said: What shall
I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof
as the flower of the held.
The grass is withered, and the dower is fallen, because
the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it. Indeed the
people is grass:
The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but
the word of our Lord endureth for ever.
Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest
good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength,
thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it
up, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your
God:
Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his
arm shall rule: Behold his reward is with him and his
work is before him.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather
together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them
up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that
are with young.
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised
with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed
the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath
been his counsellor, and hath taught him?
With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed
him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught
him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding?
Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are
counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold the
islands are as a little dust.
And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts
thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations are before him as if they had no being at
all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.
To whom then have you likened God? or what image will
you make for him?
Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith
formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates
of silver?
He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the
skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that
may not be moved.
Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not
been told you from the beginning? have you not understood
the foundations of the earth ?
It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and
the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth
out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as
a tent to dwell in.
He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing,
that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.
And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown,
nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon
them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take
them away as stubble.
And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith
the Holy One?
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created
these things: who bringeth out their host by number,
and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness
of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them
was missing.
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?
Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is
the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the
earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there
any searching out of his wisdom.
It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth
force and might to them that are not.
Youths shall faint, and labour, and young men shall
fall by infirmity.
But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and
not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. |