2 Nephi 8
1 Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the rock
from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are
digged.
2 Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah, she that bare you; for I
called him alone, and blessed 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
for the people.
5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arm 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 forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I
have written 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 forever, and my salvation from
generation to generation.
9 Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the
ancient days. Art thou not he that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
10 Art thou not he who 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 and holiness shall be upon their heads; and
they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I am he; yea, I am he that comforteth you. Behold, who art thou, that
thou shouldst be afraid of man, who shall die, and of the son of man, who
shall be made like unto 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?
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, whose waves roared; the Lord of Hosts is
my name.
16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and 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: Behold, 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 wrung out —
18 And none to guide her among all the sons she hath brought forth; neither
that taketh her by the hand, of all the sons she hath brought up.
19 These two sons are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee — thy
desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword — and by whom
shall I comfort thee?
20 Thy sons have fainted, save these two; 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, and not with wine:
22 Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord and thy God pleadeth the cause of his
people; behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, 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; who 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.
24 Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful
garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more
come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
25 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself
from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.