1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
2. Speak ye according to the heart of Jerusalem and cry unto her that her time is now fulfilled that her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
3. The voice of him that cries 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 made plain:
5. And the glory of the Lord shall be manifested, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.
6. The voice that said, Cry. And I said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the mercy thereof is as the open flower of the field:
7. The grass withers, the flower fades because the spirit of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people is grass.
8. The grass withers, the open flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9. O Zion, that brings good tidings, go up into the high mountain; lift up thy voice with strength O bearer of good tidings of Jerusalem; lift it up, do not be afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10. Behold, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young.
12. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and prepared the heavens with his palm and with three fingers measured the dust of the earth and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills with weights?
13. Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counsellor has taught him?
14. With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him? Who taught him in the path of judgment and taught him knowledge and showed unto him the way of intelligence?
15. Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he causes the isles to disappear as dust.
16. And all Lebanon is not sufficient for the fire, nor all the beasts thereof sufficient for the sacrifice.