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 the LORD ’s hand double for all her sins .”

³The voice of one who calls out ,

“Prepare the way of the LORD 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 LORD ’s glory shall be revealed ,

and all flesh shall see it together ;

for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it .”

⁶The voice of one saying , “Cry out !”

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 the LORD ’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 GOD 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 measuring basket,

and weighed the mountains in scales ,

and the hills in a balance ?

¹³Who has directed the LORD ’s Spirit ,

or has taught him as his counsellor?

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 skilful workman to set up a carved image for him that will not be moved .

²¹Haven’t you known ?

Haven’t you heard ?

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 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 the LORD ,

and the justice due me is disregarded by my God ”?

²⁸Haven’t you known ?

Haven’t you heard ?

The everlasting God , the LORD ,

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 the LORD 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 .