[1] Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. [2] Speak tenderly to
Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is
pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her
sins. [3] A voice cries: "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 be made low; the uneven ground
shall become level, and the rough places a plain. [5] And the glory of the
LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth
of the LORD has spoken." [6] A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I
cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the
field. [7] The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD
blows upon it; surely the people is grass. [8] The grass withers, the
flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever. [9] Get you up
to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with
strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, fear not; say to
the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!" [10] Behold, the Lord GOD comes
with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and
his recompense before him. [11] He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he
will gather the lambs in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom, and
gently lead those that are with young. [12] Who has measured the waters in
the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the
dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the
hills in a balance? [13] Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as his
counselor has instructed him? [14] Whom did he consult for his
enlightenment, and who taught him the path of justice, and taught him
knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? [15] Behold, the
nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the
scales; behold, he takes up the isles like fine dust. [16] Lebanon would
not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. [17]
All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as
less than nothing and emptiness. [18] To whom then will you liken God, or
what likeness compare with him? [19] The idol! a workman casts it, and a
goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. [20] He
who is impoverished chooses for an offering wood that will not rot; he
seeks out a skilful craftsman to set up an image that will not move. [21]
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the
beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? [22]
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are
like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and
spreads them like a tent to dwell in; [23] who brings princes to nought,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. [24] Scarcely are they
planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off
like stubble. [25] To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like
him? says the Holy One. [26] Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created
these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by
the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is
missing. [27] Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hid
from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"? [28] Have you not
known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of
the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding
is unsearchable. [29] He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no
might he increases strength. [30] Even youths shall faint and be weary, and
young men shall fall exhausted; [31] but they who wait for the LORD shall
renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they
shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.