Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,

Nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering.
All nations before him are as nothing;

And they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
To whom then will ye liken God?

Have ye not known? have ye not heard?
Hath it not been told you from the beginning?

Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,
And the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;
That stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain,
And spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
That bringeth the princes to nothing;
He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown:
Yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth:

And he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither,
And the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

To whom then will ye liken me,

Or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

[ocr errors]

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, That bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names, By the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 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?
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,

That the everlasting God, the Lord,

The Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
There is no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint;

And to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary,

And the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

They shall mount up with wings as eagles;

They shall run, and not be weary;
And they shall walk, and not faint.

AWAKE, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion;
Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city:

For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and

the unclean.

Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem :

Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
For thus saith the Lord, Ye have sold yourselves for nought;
And ye shall be redeemed without money.

My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there:
And the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

Now therefore, what have I here, saith the Lord,
That my people is taken away for nought?

They that rule over them make them to howl, saith the Lord:
And my name continually every day is blasphemed.
Therefore my people shall know my name :

Therefore they shall know in that day

That I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
That publisheth peace;

That bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation;
That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

The watchmen shall lift up the voice;
With the voice together shall they sing:

For they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.
Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem:
For the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations:
And all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence.

Touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her;

Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord.

For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight:

For the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently,

Ye shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

As many were astonished at thee;

His visage was so marred more than any man,
And his form more than the sons of men:

So shall he sprinkle many nations;

The kings shall shut their mouths at him:

For that which had not been told them shall they see;
And that which they had not heard shall they consider.
Who hath believed our report?

And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,

And as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness;
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected of men ;

A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
And we hid as it were our faces from him;

He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows:

Yet we did esteein him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions,

He was bruised for our iniquities:

And with his stripes we are healed.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray;

We have turned every one to his own way;
And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth :
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,

And as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,
So he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment
And who shall declare his generation

For he was cut off out of the land of the living:

For the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death;
Because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:
When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,

He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days,

And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall
bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
And he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
Because he hath poured out his soul unto death:
And he was numbered with the transgressors;

And he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
And he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat;
Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?
And your labor for that which satisfieth not?

Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good,
And let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live;
And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies
of David.

Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people,

A leader and commander to the people.

Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not,

And nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord

thy God,

And for the Holy one of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,

Call ye upon him while he is near:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,.

So are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth

not thither,

But watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud,

That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth:

It shall not return unto me void, but shall accomplish that which I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:

The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree,

And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree,
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,

For an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off.

JEREMIAH.

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people! How is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, And princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary! She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks:

Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her:

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her ene

mies.

Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great ser

vitude:

She dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest:

All her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts:

All her gates are desolate :

Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.

Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper;

For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions:
Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries
All her pleasant things that she had in the days of old.

Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?

Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.

How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, And cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel,

And remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

What thing shall I take to witness for thee?

What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

All that pass by clap their hands at thee;

They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying,
Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the
whole earth?'

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.
And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.
And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compas sions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of
the Lord.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever:

But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,

To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth

it not?

Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.
Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou

hast not pitied.

Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass

through.

Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »