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

³ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye 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 together shall see [it]: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].⁶ The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh [is] grass, and all its goodliness [is] as the flower of the field:⁷ The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit 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 shall stand forever.

⁹ O Zion, that bringest good tidings, go up upon the high mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift [it] up, be not afraid; say to the cities of Judah, Behold your God!¹⁰ Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong [hand], and his arm will rule for him: behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him.¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd: he will gather the lambs with his arm, and carry [them] in his bosom, [and] will gently lead those that are with young.

¹² Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and measured 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 counselor 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 showed 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 of it sufficient for a burnt-offering.¹⁷ All nations before him [are] as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.

¹⁸ To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare to him?¹⁹ The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains.²⁰ He that [is] so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree [that] will not rot; he seeketh for himself a skillful workman to prepare 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 its inhabitants [are] as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:²³ That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.²⁴ Yes, they shall not be planted; yes, they shall not be sown: yes, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.²⁵ To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equaled? saith the Holy One.²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that [he] is strong in power; not one faileth.

²⁷ Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over by my God?²⁸ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] 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 [them that have] 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.