Isaiah 40:1-8

English Standard Version

Comfort for God's People

40 ^(A)Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
²^(B)Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and cry to her
that ^(C)her warfare^[a] is ended,
    that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
    double for all her sins.

³^(D)A voice cries:^[b]
^(E)“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    ^(F)make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴^(G)Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
⁵^(H)And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    ^(I)for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Word of God Stands Forever

⁶A voice says, “Cry!”
    And I said,^[c] “What shall I cry?”
^(J)All flesh is grass,
    and all its beauty^[d] is like the flower of the field.
⁷The grass withers, the flower fades
    when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
    surely the people are grass.
⁸^(K)The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Isaiah 40:2 Or hardship
Isaiah 40:3 Or A voice of one crying
Isaiah 40:6 Revocalization based on Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Vulgate; Masoretic Text And someone says
Isaiah 40:6 Or all its constancy

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

English Standard Version

God of All Comfort

³^(A)Blessed be the ^(B)God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and ^(C)God of all comfort, ⁴^(D)who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For as we share abundantly in ^(E)Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.^[a] ⁶^(F)If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. ⁷Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you ^(G)share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

⁸For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers,^[b] of ^(H)the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us ^(I)rely not on ourselves ^(J)but on God ^(K)who raises the dead. ¹⁰^(L)He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. ^(M)On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. ¹¹^(N)You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf ^(O)for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

2 Corinthians 1:5 Or For as the sufferings of Christ abound for us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ
2 Corinthians 1:8 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters