Isaiah speaks Messianically—Prepare ye the way of the Lord—He shall feed his flock like a shepherd—Israel’s God is incomparably great.

1 - Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

2 - Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned : for she hath received of the L ORD ’s hand double for all her sins.

3 - ¶ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the L ORD, 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 L ORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the L ORD hath spoken it.

6 - The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:

7 - The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the L ORD bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.

8 - The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

9 - ¶ O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

10 - Behold, the Lord G OD will come with 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 hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out 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 L ORD, or being his counsellor 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 shewed 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 thereof 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 unto 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 unto him a cunning 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 the inhabitants thereof 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 - Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, 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 equal? 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 L ORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

28 - ¶ Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the L ORD, 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 L ORD shall renew their strength ; they shall mount up with wings as eagles ; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.