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¹ Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.² Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; that she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

³ The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.⁴ Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:⁵ and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.⁶ The voice of one saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the breath of the LORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.⁸ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

⁹ O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, get thee up into the high mountain: O thou that tellest good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold, your God!¹⁰ Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him.¹¹ He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that give suck.

¹² Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?¹³ Who hath directed the spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?¹⁴ With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?¹⁵ Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.¹⁶ And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him; they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?¹⁹ The graven image, a workman melted it, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth for it silver chains.²⁰ He that is too impoverished for such an oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to set up a graven image, that shall not be moved.²¹ Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?²² It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:²³ that bringeth princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.²⁴ Yea, they have not been planted; yea, they have not been sown; yea, their stock hath not taken root in the earth: moreover he bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble.²⁵ To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One.²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.

²⁷ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed away from my God?²⁸ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.²⁹ He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.³⁰ Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:³¹ but they that wait upon 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.