1"Comfort my people, comfort them," says your God.
2"Speak kindly to Jerusalem. Call out to her that her hard service is finished, that her sin is pardoned. For she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins."
3The voice of one calling in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
4"Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked ground shall be made straight, and the rough places level."
5And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
6The voice said, "Cry out." And he said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7The grass dries up, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows on it. Surely the people are grass.
8The grass dries up, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9Zion, you who bring good news, go up onto the high mountain. Jerusalem, you who bring good news, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Look, your God!"
10Look, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Look, his reward is with him, and his work goes before him.
11He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm and carry them close to his chest, and he will gently lead those that are nursing their young.
12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains on scales and the hills in a balance?
13Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or taught him as his adviser?
14With whom did he take counsel? Who instructed him and taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?
15Look, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. They count as the fine dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
16Lebanon is not enough for the fire, and its animals are not enough for a burnt offering.
17All nations before him are like nothing. To him they count as less than nothing, and empty.
18To whom then will you compare God? What likeness will you set beside him?
19The workman casts a carved image, and the goldsmith covers it over with gold and makes silver chains for it.
20The man who is too poor to bring such an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled workman to make a carved image that will not fall over.
21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23He brings princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth as empty as air.
24They are hardly planted, hardly sown, their stem has hardly taken root in the ground, when he blows on them and they dry up, and the whirlwind carries them away like straw.
25"To whom then will you compare me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things. He brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. Because of his great might and his strong power, not one of them is missing.
27Why do you say, Jacob, and why do you speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my cause is passed over by my God"?
28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow faint or weary. No one can search out his understanding.
29He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might he gives more strength.
30Even young people grow faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
31But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall rise up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint.