s[See ver. 19 above]
t[See ver. 20 above]
ay[See ver. 6 above]
ch[See ver. 17 above]

Isaiah 35:3-4

3 aStrengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
bBehold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”

Isaiah 40:1-2

Comfort for God’s People

1 cComfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 dSpeak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that eher warfare
Or hardship
is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.

Isaiah 49:13-26

13 gSing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the Lord hhas comforted his people
and will have compassion on his afflicted.
14 But Zion said, i“The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 j“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
16Behold, kI have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are continually before me.
17Your builders make haste;
Dead Sea Scroll; Masoretic Text  Your children make haste

myour destroyers and those who laid you waste go out from you.
18 nLift up your eyes around and see;
they all gather, they come to you.
oAs I live, declares the Lord,
pyou shall put them all on as an ornament;
you shall bind them on as a bride does.
19 Surely your waste and your desolate places
and your devastated land
qsurely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants,
and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20 rThe children of your bereavement
will yet say in your ears:
s‘The place is too narrow for me;
make room for me to dwell in.’
21Then you will say in your heart:
Who has borne me these?
tI was bereaved and barren,
exiled and put away,
but who has brought up these?
Behold, I was left alone;
from where have these come?’”
22 Thus says the Lord God:
Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations,
uand raise my signal to the peoples;
vand they shall bring your sons in their arms,
Hebrew  in their bosom

and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders.
23 xKings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
yWith their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
and zlick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
aathose who wait for me abshall not be put to shame.”
24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty,
or the captives of a tyrant
Dead Sea Scroll, Syriac, Vulgate (see also verse 25); Masoretic Text  of a righteous man
be rescued?
25For thus says the Lord:
adEven the captives of the mighty shall be taken,
and the prey of the tyrant be rescued,
for I will contend with those who contend with you,
and I will save your children.
26 aeI will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk afwith their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that agI am the Lord your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Isaiah 51:3-23

3For the Lord ahcomforts Zion;
he comforts all her waste places
and makes her wilderness like aiEden,
her desert like ajthe garden of the Lord;
akjoy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
4 al“Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
amfor a law
Or  for teaching; also verse 7
will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
5 aoMy righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
apthe coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
6 aqLift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
arfor the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
Or  will die like gnats

atbut my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.
7 auListen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people avin whose heart is my law;
awfear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.
8 axFor the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
aybut my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”
9 azAwake, awake, baput on strength,
O bbarm of the Lord;
awake, bcas in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut bdRahab in pieces,
who pierced bethe dragon?
10 bfWas it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?
11 bgAnd the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 “I, I am he bhwho comforts you;
who are you that you are afraid of biman who dies,
of the son of man who is made bjlike grass,
13and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker,
bkwho stretched out the heavens
and bllaid the foundations of the earth,
and you fear continually all the day
because of the wrath of bmthe oppressor,
when he sets himself to destroy?
And where is the wrath of bnthe oppressor?
14 boHe who is bowed down shall speedily be released;
he shall not die and go down bpto the pit,
neither shall his bread be lacking.
15I am the Lord your God,
bqwho stirs up the sea so that its waves roar
the Lord of hosts is his name.
16 brAnd I have put my words in your mouth
bsand covered you in the shadow of my hand,
btestablishing
Or planting
the heavens
and bvlaying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’”
17 bwWake yourself, wake yourself,
stand up, O Jerusalem,
bxyou who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs
the bowl, bythe cup of staggering.
18 bzThere is none to guide her
among all the sons she has borne;
there is none to take her by the hand
among all the sons she has brought up.
19 caThese two things have happened to you—
who will console you?—
devastation and destruction, famine and sword;
who will comfort you?
Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate; Masoretic Text how shall I comfort you

20 ccYour sons have fainted;
they lie at the head of every street
like an cdantelope cein a net;
they are full of the wrath of the Lord,
the rebuke of your God.
21 cfTherefore hear this, you who are afflicted,
who are drunk, but not with wine:
22Thus says your Lord, the Lord,
your God cgwho pleads the cause of his people:
Behold, I have taken from your hand chthe cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more;
23 ciand I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,
cjwho have said to you,
Bow down, that we may pass over’;
and ckyou have made your back like the ground
and like the street for them to pass over.”

Jeremiah 3:12-24

12Go, and proclaim these words toward clthe north, and say,

cm“‘Return, faithless Israel,

declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for cnI am merciful,

declares the Lord;
coI will not be angry forever.
13 cpOnly acknowledge your guilt,
that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under cqevery green tree,
and that you have not obeyed my voice,

declares the Lord.
14 crReturn, O faithless children,

declares the Lord;
csfor I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.
15“‘And ctI will give you shepherds after my own heart, cuwho will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, cvand all nations shall gather to it, cwto the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 cxIn those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land cyof the north to czthe land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

19 “‘I said,
How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would dacall me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
20 dbSurely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.’”
21 A voice on the dcbare heights is heard,
ddthe weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 deReturn, O faithless sons;
dfI will heal your faithlessness.”
Behold, we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
23Truly dgthe hills are a delusion,
the orgies
Hebrew commotion
on the mountains.
diTruly in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.
24“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Jeremiah 30:18-22

18 Thus says the Lord:
Behold, djI will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob
and have compassion on his dwellings;
the city shall be rebuilt on dkits mound,
and the palace shall stand where it used to be.
19 dlOut of them shall come songs of thanksgiving,
and the voices of those who celebrate.
dmI will multiply them, and they shall not be few;
I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.
20 dnTheir children shall be as they were of old,
and their congregation shall be established before me,
and I will punish all who oppress them.
21 doTheir prince shall be one of themselves;
dptheir ruler shall come out from their midst;
dqI will make him draw near, and he shall approach me,
drfor who would dare of himself to approach me?

declares the Lord.
22 dsAnd you shall be my people,
and I will be your God.”
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