1Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.2Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call to her, for her warfare is ended, for her iniquity is pardoned, for she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.3A voice is calling in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; smooth in the Arabah a highway for our God.4Every valley shall be raised, and every mountain and hill shall be abased, and the steep shall become a plain and the roughness a valley.5And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.6A voice says, Call. And he said, What shall I call? All the flesh is grass, and all its kindness is like the flower of the land.7The grass withers, the flower withers, for the spirit of the LORD blew upon it; surely the people are grass.8The grass withers, the flower withers, but the word of our God stands forever.9Upon a high mountain ascend, you bearer of good tidings of Zion; raise in strength your voice, bearer of good tidings of Jerusalem; raise, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God."10Behold, the Lord GOD comes with strength, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.11Like a shepherd he pastures his flock; in his arm he gathers lambs, and in his bosom he carries them; he gently leads those who are nursing.12Who measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, and enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?13Who measured the spirit of the LORD, and the man of his counsel makes him known?14With whom did he take counsel, and who made him understand? Who taught him the way of justice, and taught him knowledge, and made known to him the way of understanding?15Look, nations are like a drop from a bucket, and like dust on the scales they are reckoned; look, coastlands he lifts like fine dust.16Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel, nor are its animals sufficient for a burnt offering.17All the nations are as nothing before him; they are regarded by him as less than nothing and emptiness.18And to whom will you liken God, and what likeness will you arrange to him?19The craftsman casts the idol, and the refiner overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it.20The one too poor for such an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks for himself a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not totter.21Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like locusts; he who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.23He brings rulers to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth like emptiness.24Hardly are they planted, hardly are they sown, hardly has their stock taken root in the earth, when he blows on them and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.25"To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?" says the Holy One.26Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these, the one who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is missing.27Why do you say, Jacob, and speak, Israel: "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?28Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God is the LORD, creator of the ends of the earth; he does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.29He gives strength to the weary, and to the one without might he increases power.30Even youths faint and grow weary, and young men stumble and fall.31But those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not faint.