Read the Bible

¹ Comfort, O comfort My people, says your God.² Speak lovingly to the heart of Jerusalem; yea, cry to her that her warfare is done, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has taken from the hand of Jehovah double for all her sins.

³ The voice of him who cries in the wilderness: Prepare the way of Jehovah; 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 knoll shall be a level place, and the rough places a plain.⁵ And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.⁶ A voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all its grace as the flower of the field!⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades because the Spirit of Jehovah blows on it. Surely the people is grass.⁸ The grass withers; the flower fades; but the Word of our God shall rise forever.

⁹ Go up for yourself on the high mountain, one bearing good news to Zion; lift up your voice with strength, one bearing good news to Jerusalem. Lift up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, Behold! Your God!¹⁰ Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with strength, and His arm rules for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him, and His wage before Him.¹¹ He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather lambs with His arm; and carry them in His bosom; those with young He will lead;

¹² He who has measured in His hand the waters and the heavens by a span meted out; and enclosed in the measure the dust of the earth, and weighed in the balance the mountains, and the hills in the scales,¹³ Who has meted out the Spirit of Jehovah, or a man His counsel taught Him?¹⁴ With whom did He take counsel, and who trained Him and taught Him in the path of justice; and taught Him knowledge, and made known to Him the way of discernment?¹⁵ Lo, nations are as a drop from a bucket, and are reckoned as dust of the scales. Lo, He takes up coasts as a little thing.¹⁶ And Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before Him; to Him they are reckoned less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸ And to whom will you liken God? Or what likeness will you array to Him?¹⁹ The craftsman pours out the casted image, the smelter spreads it with gold; and he casts the chains of silver.²⁰ He too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks a skilled artisan for him, to prepare a carved image that will not be shaken.²¹ Have you not known? Have you not heard? Was it not told to you from the beginning? Did you not discern from the foundations of the earth?²² He who sits on the circle of the earth, even those living in it are like grasshoppers; He who stretches the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;²³ who gives potentates into nothing. He makes judges of the earth as nothing.²⁴ Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they are not sown; yea, their stem is not taking root in the earth. And He shall also blow on them, and they shall wither, and the tempest shall lift them up like stubble.²⁵ To whom then will you compare Me, or am I equaled, says the Holy One?²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and look: Who has created these? Who brings out their host by number? By greatness of vigor, and might of power, He calls them all by names; not one is lacking.

²⁷ Why will you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel; My way is hidden from Jehovah, and my judgment is passed over by my God?²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard? Jehovah, the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth; He is not faint, nor does He grow weary; there is no searching to His understanding.²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and to him with no vigor He increases might.³⁰ Even youths are faint and fatigued, and young men stumbling shall stumble;³¹ but the ones waiting for Jehovah shall renew power; they shall go up with wings as the eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not be faint!