¹“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. ²“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of Yahweh’s hand double for all her sins.”

³

• The voice of one who calls out,
• “Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!
• Make a level highway in the desert for our God.

• ⁴Every valley shall be exalted,
• and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
• The uneven shall be made level,
• and the rough places a plain.

• ⁵The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed,
• and all flesh shall see it together;
• for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” ⁶The voice of one saying, “Cry!”
• One said, “What shall I cry?”

• “All flesh is like grass,
• and all its glory is like the flower of the field.

• ⁷The grass withers,
• the flower fades,
• because Yahweh’s breath blows on it.
• Surely the people are like grass.

• ⁸The grass withers,
• the flower fades;
• but the word of our God stands forever.”

• ⁹You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain.
• You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength.
• Lift it up. Don’t be afraid.
• Say to the cities of Judah, “Behold, your God!”

• ¹⁰Behold, the Lord Yahweh will come as a mighty one,
• and his arm will rule for him.
• Behold, his reward is with him,
• and his recompense before him.

• ¹¹He will feed his flock like a shepherd.
• He will gather the lambs in his arm,
• and carry them in his bosom.
• He will gently lead those who have their young.

• ¹²Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
• and marked off the sky with his span,
• and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure,
• and weighed the mountains in scales,
• and the hills in a balance?

• ¹³Who has directed the Spirit of Yahweh,
• or has taught him as his counselor?

• ¹⁴Who did he take counsel with,
• and who instructed him,
• and taught him in the path of justice,
• and taught him knowledge,
• and showed him the way of understanding?

• ¹⁵Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket,
• and are regarded as a speck of dust on a balance.
• Behold, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.

• ¹⁶Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
• nor its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.

• ¹⁷All the nations are like nothing before him.
• They are regarded by him as less than nothing, and vanity.

• ¹⁸To whom then will you liken God?
• Or what likeness will you compare to him?

• ¹⁹A workman has cast an image,
• and the goldsmith overlays it with gold,
• and casts silver chains for it.

• ²⁰He who is too impoverished for such an offering chooses a tree that will not rot.
• He seeks a skillful workman to set up an engraved image for him that will not be moved.

• ²¹Haven’t you known?
• Haven’t you heard, yet?
• Haven’t you been told from the beginning?
• Haven’t you understood from the foundations of the earth?

• ²²It 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 out like a tent to dwell in;
• ²³who brings princes to nothing;
• who makes the judges of the earth like meaningless.

• ²⁴They are planted scarcely.
• They are sown scarcely.
• Their stock has scarcely taken root in the ground.
• He merely blows on them, and they wither,
• and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.

• ²⁵“To whom then will you liken me?
• Who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

• ²⁶Lift up your eyes on high,
• and see who has created these,
• who brings out their army by number.
• He calls them all by name.
• by the greatness of his might,
• and because he is strong in power,
• Not one is lacking.

• ²⁷Why do you say, Jacob,
• and speak, Israel,
• “My way is hidden from Yahweh,
• and the justice due me is disregarded by my God?”

• ²⁸Haven’t you known?
• Haven’t you heard?
• The everlasting God, Yahweh,
• The Creator of the ends of the earth, doesn’t faint.
• He isn’t weary.
• His understanding is unsearchable.

• ²⁹He gives power to the weak.
• He increases the strength of him who has no might.

• ³⁰Even the youths faint and get weary,
• and the young men utterly fall;
• ³¹But those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength.
• They will mount up with wings like eagles.
• They will run, and not be weary.
• They will walk, and not faint.