1 "Comfort, comfort my people," says your God.
2 "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and call out to her that her hard service is over, that her iniquity has been paid off, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins."
3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley will be raised, and every mountain and hill brought down; the uneven ground will become flat, and the rugged places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh together will see it, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
6 A voice says, "Call out!" And he said, "What am I to call out?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the wildflower.
7 Grass dries up, the flower withers, when the breath of the LORD blows on it; the people are indeed grass.
8 Grass dries up, the flower withers, but the word of our God stands forever.
9 Climb up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; raise your voice with power, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; raise it, have no fear; tell the cities of Judah, "See, your God!"
10 See, the Lord GOD is coming in strength, and his arm rules on his behalf; see, his reward is with him, and his recompense goes ahead of him.
11 Like a shepherd he will pasture his flock; he will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them close to his heart, and he will guide the ewes that are nursing.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the heavens by the span, and taken the dust of the earth in a measuring bowl, and weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills in a pair of balances?
13 Who has gauged the Spirit of the LORD, or as his adviser taught him anything?
14 Whom did he consult so that he would gain insight? Who instructed him in the path of justice, taught him knowledge, and made known to him the way of understanding?
15 Look, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and they count as the dust on a scale; look, he picks up the coastlands like fine powder.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor its animals suffice for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are as nothing before him; he counts them as less than nothing and void.
18 To whom, then, will you compare God? What image will you set beside him?
19 The idol? A craftsman casts it, a smith plates it with gold and forges silver chains for it.
20 The one too poor for such a contribution chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not wobble.
21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not grasped it since the earth was founded?
22 He is the one who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; he stretches out the heavens like a veil and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He reduces rulers to nothing and makes the judges of the earth into emptiness.
24 They are hardly planted, hardly sown, their stalk has hardly rooted in the ground, when he blows on them and they dry up, and a gale sweeps them away like straw.
25 "To whom, then, will you compare me, that I should be his equal?" says the Holy One.
26 Raise your eyes upward and look: who created these? He who leads out their host by number and calls each of them by name; because his might is so great and his power so strong, not one is missing.
27 Why do you say, Jacob, and why do you declare, Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is ignored by my God"?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary; his understanding cannot be fathomed.
29 He gives strength to the weary and multiplies power for those who have no vigor.
30 Young men may grow tired and weary, and choice youths may stumble and fall,
31 but those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will rise up on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow tired.