Chapter 40

The Prophet comforteth the people with Christ's coming to remit sins. ℣.3 Before whom S. John Baptist shall preach penance. ℣.6 Sheweth man's imbecility, ℣.9 God's Majesty, ℣.18 the vanity of idols: ℣.27 & fall of them that fear not God.

1. 1

   Be comforted, be comforted my people, saith your God. Jerusalem, and call to her: because her

2. 2

   Speak to the heart of malice is accomplished, her iniquity is forgiven: she hath received of the hand of our Lord double for all her sins.

3. 3

   The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare the way of our Lord, make straight the paths of our God in the wilderness.

4. 4

   Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and little hill shall be humbled, and crooked things shall become straight, and rough ways, plain.

5. 5

   And the glory of our Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, the mouth of our Lord hath spoken.

6. 6

   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 field.

7. 7

   The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of our Lord hath blown on it. Indeed the people is grass:

8. 8

   the grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord abideth for ever.

9. 9

   Upon an high mountain get thee up, thou that evangelizest to Sion: exalt the voice in strength, which evangelizest to Jerusalem: exalt it, fear not. Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:

10. 10

    behold our Lord God shall come in strength, & his arm shall have dominion: behold his reward is with him, and his work before him.

11. 11

    As a shepherd shall he feed his flock: in his arm shall he gather together the lambs, and in his bosom shall he lift them up, and them with young himself shall carry.

12. 12

    Who hath measured the waters with his fist, and pondered the heavens with a span? Who hath poised with three fingers the huge greatness of the earth, & weighed the mountains in weight, and the little hills in balance?

13. 13

    Who hath holpen the spirit of our Lord? Or who hath been his counseller, & shewed to him?

14. 14

    With whom hath he taken counsel, and who hath instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of prudence?

15. 15

    Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are reputed as the moment of a balance: behold the islands are as a little dust.

16. 16

    And Libanus shall not suffice to kindle the fire, and the beasts thereof shall not be sufficient for holocaust.

17. 17

    All nations as if they were not, so are they before him, and they are reputed of him as nothing, and a vain thing.

18. 18

    To whom then have you made God like? Or what image will you set to him?

19. 19

    Hath the artificer cast a sculptile? or hath the goldsmith figured it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?

20. 20

    Strong wood, and that which will not putrify hath he chosen: the wise artificer seeketh how he may set up a sculptile which may not be moved.

21. 21

    Why, do you not know: why, have you not heard? Why, hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?

22. 22

    He that sitteth upon the compass of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them as a tent to dwell in.

23. 23

    He that maketh the searchers of secrets as if they were not, that hath made the judges of the earth as a vain thing:

24. 24

    and indeed their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon them, and they have withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

25. 25

    And to whom have ye likened me, and made me equal? Saith the holy one?

26. 26

    Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: he that bringeth out the hosts of them in number, and calleth them all by name: by the multitude of his force and strength, & power, not one of them was missing.

27. 27

    Why sayest thou Jacob, and speakest thou Israel: My way is hid from our Lord, and my judgement is passed over of my God?

28. 28

    Why knowest thou not or hast thou not heard? Our Lord is God everlasting, which hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not fail, nor labour, neither is there searching out of his wisdom.

29. 29

    Which giveth strength to the weary: and to them that are not, multiplieth force and strength.

30. 30

    Children shall faint, and labour, and youngmen shall fall by infirmity.

31. 31

    But they that hope in our Lord shall change their strength, they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not labour, they shall walk and not faint.