2Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry to her, for she was filled with violence and delighted in sin; and she has received from the LORD'S hand double punishment for all her sins.

3The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4Every valley shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the steep place shall be made straight, 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 it.

6The voice says, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field;

7The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely this people is like the grass.

8The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

9O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up upon the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

10Behold, the LORD God will come with might, and his arm with strength; 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 feed again those who give suck.

12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with a span and gathered 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 or who has been to him a counsellor?

14With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him and made him to understand the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?

15Behold, the nations are like a drop out of a bucket, and are counted as the dipping of the balance; behold, the isles shall be cast away like fine dust.

16And Lebanon is not sufficient for the fuel, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.

17All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him for destruction and the sword.

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

19Is he an image which the carpenter has made and the goldsmith has overlaid with gold and fastened with silver chains?

20He selects wood that is not worm-eaten; then chooses a carpenter, who fashions it with his skill, to make an image that will not be moved.

21Have you not heard? Have you not known? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

22It is he who sits upon the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them as a tent to dwell in;

23Who brings princes to nought; and makes the judges of the earth as if they were nothing.

24Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown; yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth; and he shall blow upon them and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

25To whom then will you liken me, or to whom shall I be equal? says the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold: who has created these things? Who brings out their host by number; he called them all by name, by the greatness of his glory and the strength of his power; not one is missing.

27Why do you say, O Jacob, and say, O Israel, My way is hidden from the LORD and justice is not rendered by my God?

28Have you not known, have you not heard, that God is the LORD for ever, who has created the ends of the earth? that he does not faint, neither is weary? and that there is no searching of his understanding?

29He gives power to the weary, and to them that are stricken with disease he increases strength.

30Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall helplessly stumble;

31But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall grow wings as a dove; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.