3There is a voice that cries:
Prepare a road for the LORD through the wilderness,
clear a highway across the desert for our God.
4Every valley shall be lifted up,
every mountain and hill brought down;
rugged places shall be made smooth
and mountain-ranges become a plain.
5Thus shall the glory of the LORD be revealed,
and all mankind together. shall see it;
for the LORD himself has spoken.
6A voice says, 'Cry',
and another asks, 'What shall I cry?'
'That all mankind is grass,
they last no longer than a flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades,
when the breath of the LORD blows upon them
;
8the grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God endures for evermore.'
9You who bring Zion good news , up with you to the mountain-top;
lift up your voice and shout,
you who bring good news to Jerusalem ,
lift it up fearlessly;
cry to the cities of Judah, 'Your God is here.'
10Here is the Lord GOD coming in might,
coming to rule with his right arm.
His recompense comes with him,
he carries his reward before him.
11He will tend his flock like a shepherd
and gather them together with his arm;
he will carry the lambs in his bosom
and lead the ewes to water.
12Who has gauged the waters in the palm of his hand,
or with its span set limits to the heavens?
Who has held all the soil of earth in a bushel,
or weighed the mountains on a balance
and the hills on a pair of scales?
13Who has set limits to the spirit of the LORD?
What counsellor stood at his side to instruct him?
14With whom did he confer to gain discernment?
Who taught him how to do justice
or gave him lessons in wisdom?
15Why, to him nations are but drops from a bucket,
no more than moisture on the scales;
coasts and islands weigh as light as specks of dust.
16All Lebanon does not yield wood enough for fuel
or beasts enough for a sacrifice.
17All nations dwindle to nothing before him,
he reckons them mere nothings, less than nought.
18What likeness will you find for God
or what form to resemble his?
19Is it an image which a craftsman sets up,
and a goldsmith covers with plate
and fits with studs of silver as a costly gift?
20Or is it mulberry-wood that will not rot which a man chooses,
seeking out a skilful craftsman for it,
to mount an image that will not fall?
Each workman helps the others,
each man encourages his fellow.
The craftsman urges on the goldsmith,
the gilder urges the man who beats the anvil,
he declares the soldering to be sound;
he fastens the image with nails
so that it will not fall down.
21Do you not know, have you not heard,
were you not told long ago,
have you not perceived ever since the world began,
22that God sits throned on the vaulted roof of earth,
whose inhabitants are like grasshoppers ?
He stretches out the skies like a curtain,
he spreads them out like a tent to live in;
22he reduces the great to nothing
and makes all earth's princes less than nothing.
24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely have they taken root in the earth,
before he blows upon them and they wither away,
and a whirlwind carries them off like chaff.
25To whom then will you liken me,
whom set up as my equal?
asks the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes to the heavens;
consider who created it all,
led out their host one by one
and called them all by their names;
through his great might, his might and power,
not one is missing.
27Why do you complain, O Jacob,
and you, Israel, why do you say,
'My plight is hidden from the LORD
and my cause has passed out of God's notice'?
28Do you not know, have you not heard?
The LORD, the everlasting God, creator of the wide world,
grows neither weary nor faint;
no man can fathom his understanding.
29He gives vigour to the weary,
new strength to the exhausted.
30Young men may grow weary and faint,
even in their prime they may stumble and fall;
31but those who look to the LORD will win new strength,
they will grow wings like, eagles;
they will run and not be weary,
they will march on and never grow faint.
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