"Comfort Ye My People"
Context: As prophet of the Lord, Isaiah pronounces his vision of "Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." Denouncing the chosen people for their wickedness and declaring God's wrath, Isaiah foretells the coming of a messiah, the eventual destruction of the enemies of the Lord, and the final greatness of Judah. After the destruction of the Assyrians, led by Sennacherib, before the gates of Jerusalem, Hezekiah receives a Babylonian delegation and displays all the treasures of his kingdom. Warned by Isaiah of the power of Babylon, Hezekiah replies that he will have peace in his own day. Another servant of the Lord, often called "Second Isaiah," continues the prophecy during the Babylonian exile of the chosen people. Beginning with Chapter 40, he records the concern of the Lord and then describes His coming:
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
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