1. “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
2. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem, and tell herthat her time of warfare is over,that her punishment is completed.For the Lord has made her pay double for all her sins.”
3. A voice cries out,“In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord;construct in the desert a road for our God.
4. Every valley must be elevated,and every mountain and hill leveled.The rough terrain will become a level plain,the rugged landscape a wide valley.
5. The splendor of the Lord will be revealed,and all people will see it at the same time.For the Lord has decreed it.”
6. A voice says, “Cry out!”Another asks, “What should I cry out?”The first voice responds: “All people are like grass,and all their promises are like the flowers in the field.
7. The grass dries up,the flowers wither,when the wind sent by the Lord blows on them.Surely humanity is like grass.
8. The grass dries up,the flowers wither,but the decree of our God is forever reliable.”