The Holy Bible

God’s People are Comforted

2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her, that her hard service is over,
that her iniquity has been pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”

6 A voice says, “Cry out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All men are like grass,
and all their binding is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flowers fade,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God stands forever.”

9 Go up on a high mountain,
O bearer of good tidings to Zion; lift up your voice with power,
O bearer of good tidings to Jerusalem. lift it up, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,  “Here is your God!”

10 Look, the Lord God comes with power;
and His arm rules for Him. Look, His reward is with Him,
and His recompense precedes Him. 11 He pastures His flock like a shepherd;
He gathers the lambs with His arm, and carries them in His bosom;
He gently leads those that have young.

12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
or marked off the heavens by the breadth of His hand? Who has calculated the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or as His counsellor has instructed Him? 14 With whom did He consult to enlighten Him?
Who taught Him the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge,
or showed Him the path of understanding?

15 Behold, the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
they are regarded as the dust on the scales. He lifts up the islands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon is not sufficient for fuel for an altar,
nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before Him;
they are counted before Him as less than nothing and emptiness.

18 To whom then will you liken God?
What likeness will you compare Him to? 19 The idol?
 —A craftsman casts it,
then a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and fashions silver chains for it. 20 A man too poor for such an offering
selects wood that will not rot; then he seeks out a skilful craftsman
to set up a carved idol that will not topple.

21 Have you not known?
Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heaves like a curtain,
and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. 23 He reduces princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth as nothing.

24 Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, and He blows upon them, and they wither,
and a whirlwind sweeps them off like stubble.

25 “To whom then will you liken Me,
or who is My equal?” asks the Holy One. 26 “Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look:
 Who has created these things?”
He brings out their host by number,
He calls them all by name. Because of the greatness of His might,
and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my cause is passed over by my God”? 28 Have you not known?
Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord,
the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow faint or weary.
His understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even the youth will faint and be weary,
and the young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who wait upon the Lord
will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles,
they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.