40 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. ² Speak ye ^[a]comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her, that her ^[b]warfare is accomplished, that her ^[c]iniquity is pardoned, that she hath received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.

³ The voice of one ^[d]that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain: ⁵ and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.

⁶ The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. ⁸ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.

^9 [e]O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up on a high mountain; ^[f]O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God! ¹⁰ Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. ¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and will gently lead those that have their young.

¹² Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? ¹³ Who hath ^[g]directed the Spirit of Jehovah, or being his counsellor hath taught him? ¹⁴ With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? ¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: behold, ^[h]he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. ¹⁶ And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering. ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as ^[i]less than nothing, and ^[j]vanity.

¹⁸ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? ¹⁹ The image, a workman hath cast it, and the goldsmith overlayeth it with gold, and casteth for it silver chains. ²⁰ He that is too impoverished for such an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a skilful workman to ^[k]set up a graven image, that shall not be moved. ²¹ Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not ^[l]understood from the foundations of the earth? ²² It is he that sitteth above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as ^[m]a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in; ²³ that bringeth princes to nothing; that maketh the judges of the earth as ^[n]vanity. ^24 [o]Yea, they have not been planted; yea, they have not been sown; yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth: moreover he bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble. ²⁵ To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One. ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high, ^[p]and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.

²⁷ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from Jehovah, and the justice due to me is passed away from my God? ²⁸ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? ^[q]The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. ²⁹ He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. ³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: ³¹ but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.

10 Hear ye the word which Jehovah speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: ² thus saith Jehovah, Learn not the way of the nations, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the nations are dismayed at them. ³ For the ^[a]customs of the peoples are vanity; for ^[b]one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. ⁴ They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. ⁵ They are like a ^[c]palm-tree, of turned work, and speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.

⁶ There is none like unto thee, O Jehovah; thou art great, and thy name is great in might. ⁷ Who should not fear thee, O King of the nations? for ^[d]to thee doth it appertain; forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like unto thee. ⁸ But they are ^[e]together brutish and foolish: ^[f]the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. ⁹ There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skilful men. ¹⁰ But Jehovah is ^[g]the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembleth, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.

^11 [h]Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, ^[i]these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.

¹² He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens. ^13 [j]When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. ¹⁴ Every man ^[k]is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. ¹⁵ They are vanity, a work of ^[l]delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. ¹⁶ The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.

¹⁷ Gather up ^[m]thy wares out of the land, ^[n]O thou that abidest in the siege. ¹⁸ For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may ^[o]feel it.

¹⁹ Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my ^[p]grief, and I must bear it. ²⁰ My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are not: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. ²¹ For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Jehovah: therefore they have not ^[q]prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. ²² The voice of tidings, behold, it cometh, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling-place of jackals.

²³ O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. ²⁴ O Jehovah, correct me, but in ^[r]measure; not in thine anger, lest thou ^[s]bring me to nothing. ²⁵ Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his ^[t]habitation.

4 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords, Bring, and let us drink. ² The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that they shall take you away with hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks. ³ And ye shall go out at the breaches, every one straight before her; ^[a]and ye shall cast yourselves into Harmon, saith Jehovah.

⁴ Come to Beth-el, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three days; ⁵ and ^[b]offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill-offerings and publish them: for this pleaseth you, O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah.

⁶ And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. ⁷ And I also have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. ⁸ So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, and were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. ⁹ I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: the multitude of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees hath the palmer-worm devoured: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. ¹⁰ I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword, ^[c]and have carried away your horses; and I have made the stench of your camp to come up even into your nostrils: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah. ¹¹ I have overthrown cities among you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a brand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith Jehovah.

¹² Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. ¹³ For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought; that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth—Jehovah, the God of hosts, is his name.

1 The ^[a]burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

² Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth; Jehovah avengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. ³ Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty: Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. ⁴ He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. ⁵ The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. ⁶ Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him. ⁷ Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that take refuge in him. ⁸ But with an over-running flood he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

⁹ What do ye devise against Jehovah? he will make a full end; affliction shall not rise up the second time. ¹⁰ For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed ^[b]utterly as dry stubble. ¹¹ There is one gone forth out of thee, that deviseth evil against Jehovah, ^[c]that counselleth ^[d]wickedness. ¹² Thus saith Jehovah: Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away. ^[e]Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. ¹³ And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.

¹⁴ And Jehovah hath given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image; I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.

¹⁵ Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows; for ^[f]the wicked one shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.