Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
2Speak lovingly to the heart of Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is done, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
3The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight a highway in the desert for our God.
4Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked places shall be made level, and the rough places smooth;
5and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
6The voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the beauty of it is as the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of the LORD blows on it; surely the people is grass.
8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.
9Go up for yourself on the high mountain, bringer of good tidings to Zion. Lift up your voice with strength, O you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem; lift up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with a strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.
11He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those with young.
12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured out the heavens with a span? And who has shut up 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 the LORD, and what man taught Him counsel?
14With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and made known the way of understanding to Him?
15Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the scales; behold, He takes up the coastlands as a very little thing.
16And Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor the beasts of it enough for a burnt offering.
17All nations before Him are as nothing; and to Him they are thought to be less than nothing, and vanity.
18To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him?
19The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.
20He too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he looks for a skillful workman to prepare a graven image that will not totter.
21Have 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?
22It is He who sits on the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in;
23who brings the rulers to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
24Yes, they shall not be planted; yes, they shall not be sown. Yes, their stump shall not take root in the earth. And He shall also blow on them, and they shall wither, and the tempest shall take them away like stubble.
25To whom then will you compare Me, or am I equaled? says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold, who has created these, who brings out their host by number? He calls them all by names by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power; not one is lacking.
27Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hidden from the LORD and my judgment has passed over from my God?
28Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow weak nor weary? There is no searching of His understanding.
29He gives power to the weary; and to him with no vigor; He increases strength.
30Even the young shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall;
31but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.