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1Comfort, O comfort my people,[#Isa 12.1]
says your God.
2Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,[#Isa 33.24; 35.4; 41.11–13; Jer 16.18]
and cry to her
that she has served her term,
that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord ’s hand
double for all her sins.
3A voice cries out:[#Mal 3.1; Mt 3.3; Jn 1.23]
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord ;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4Every valley shall be lifted up,[#Isa 45.2]
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
6A voice says, “Cry out!”[#Job 14.2; Ps 102.11; 103.15; 1 Pet 1.24, 25]
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass;
their constancy is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers; the flower fades,[#v 24 ; Ps 90.5, 6]
[[when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
surely the people are grass.
8The grass withers; the flower fades,]][#Isa 55.11; Mt 5.18; 1 Pet 1.24, 25; #40.7–8 Q ms Gk lack when the breath…flower fades]
but the word of our God will stand forever.
9Get you up to a high mountain,[#Isa 52.7; 61.1; Acts 10.36; Rom 10.15]
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
10See, the Lord God comes with might,[#Isa 59.16, 18; 62.11; Rev 22.12]
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him
and his recompense before him.
11He will feed his flock like a shepherd;[#Ezek 34.23; Mic 5.4; Jn 10.11; Heb 13.20]
he will gather the lambs in his arms
and carry them in his bosom
and gently lead the mother sheep.
12Who has measured the waters of the sea in the hollow of his hand[#Job 38.8–11; Isa 48.13; Heb 1.10–12; #40.12 Q ms: MT lacks of the sea]
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?
13Who has directed the spirit of the Lord[#Rom 11.34; 1 Cor 2.16]
or as his counselor has instructed him?
14Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
and who taught him the path of justice?
[[Who taught him knowledge
and showed him the way of understanding?
15Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket[#Isa 17.13; 29.5; Jer 10.10]
and are accounted as dust on the scales;
see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
16Lebanon would not provide fuel enough,
nor are its animals enough for a burnt offering.]]
17All the nations are as nothing before him;[#Isa 29.7; 30.28]
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18To whom, then, will you liken God,[#v 25 ; Isa 46.5; Mic 7.18; Acts 17.29]
or what likeness compare with him?
19An idol? A workman casts it,[#Isa 41.6, 7; 44.12; Jer 10.3]
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20As a gift one chooses mulberry wood[#Isa 41.7; Jer 10.3–5; #40.20 Meaning of Heb uncertain]
—wood that will not rot—
then seeks out a skilled artisan
to set up an image that will not topple.
21Have you not known? Have you not heard?[#Ps 19.1; Acts 14.17; Rom 1.19]
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,[#Num 13.33; Job 22.14; Ps 104.2; Isa 42.5; 44.24]
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
and spreads them like a tent to live in,
23who brings princes to naught[#Job 12.21; Ps 107.40; Isa 5.21]
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,[#v 7 ; Isa 17.10, 11, 13; 41.16]
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.
25To whom, then, will you compare me,[#v 18]
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high and see:[#Ps 89.11–13; 147.4; Isa 34.16; 42.5; 51.6]
Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
mighty in power,
not one is missing.
27Why do you say, O Jacob,[#Isa 25.1; 49.4, 14; 54.8; Lk 18.7, 8]
and assert, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord ,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28Have you not known? Have you not heard?[#Ps 90.2; 147.5; Rom 11.33]
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.
29He gives power to the faint[#Isa 41.10; 50.4; Jer 31.25]
and strengthens the powerless.
30Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted,
31but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;[#Deut 32.11; Ps 103.5; 2 Cor 4.1, 8–10, 16; Heb 12.3]
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.