Comfort for God’s People
aComfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 aSpeak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that bher warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
3 aA voice cries:
b“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
cmake straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 aEvery 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 aAnd the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
bfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The Word of God Stands Forever
6 A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
aAll 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 on it;
surely the people are grass.
8 aThe grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
The Greatness of God
9 Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, aherald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10 aBehold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
bbehold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 aHe will tend his flock like a shepherd;
bhe will gather the lambs in his arms;
che will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
12 aWho 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 aWho has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
aWho 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 aas the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up bthe coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are aits beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 aAll the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 aTo whom then will you liken God,
bor what likeness compare with him?
19 aAn idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 aHe who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
21 aDo you not know? Do you not hear?
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 alike grasshoppers;
bwho stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23 awho brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
aand the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 aTo 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?
aHe 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,
a“My way is hidden from the Lord,
band my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is athe everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
bhis 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 athey who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings blike eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.