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.

2. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah {that} bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

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.

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 like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

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.

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 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?

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?

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.

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 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? {were...: or, made himself ready}

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.

15. But I {am} the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts {is} his name.

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? {are...: Heb. happened} {destruction: Heb. breaking}

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.

21. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:

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.