1
Hearken to me, ye that follow afterrighteousness, ye that seek the LORD:look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
3
For the LORD shall comfortZion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD;joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4
Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5
My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
6
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in likemanner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7
Hearken unto me, ye that knowrighteousness, the people in whose heart is my law;fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
8
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9
Awake, awake, put onstrength, O arm of the LORD;awake, as in the ancientdays, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cutRahab, and wounded the dragon?
11
Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlastingjoy shall be upon their head: they shall obtaingladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12
I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13
And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast fearedcontinually every daybecause of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
16
And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
17
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
18
There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
19
These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
20
Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
22
Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
23
But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.