1: Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that
seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of
the pit whence ye are digged. |
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2: Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you:
for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. |
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3:
For the LORD shall comfort Zion: 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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
like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness
shall not be abolished. |
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7: Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in
whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye
afraid of their revilings. |
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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. |
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9: Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in
the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath
cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? |
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10: Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the
great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed
to pass over? |
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11: Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come
with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head:
they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee
away. |
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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; |
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13: And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth
the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared
continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he
were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? |
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14: The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that
he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. |
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15: But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves
roared: The LORD of hosts is his name. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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? |
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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. |
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21: Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not
with wine: |
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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: |
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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. |