New Living Translation NLT
Hebrew Names Version HNV
1 “Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God.
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Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.
2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned. Yes, the LORD has punished her twice over for all her sins.”
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Speak comfortably to Yerushalayim; and cry to her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
3 Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD ! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!
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The voice of one who cries, Prepare you in the wilderness the way of the LORD; make level in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves, and smooth out the rough places.
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Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain:
5 Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The LORD has spoken!”
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and the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
6 A voice said, “Shout!” I asked, “What should I shout?” “Shout that people are like the grass. Their beauty fades as quickly as the flowers in a field.
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The voice of one saying, Cry. One said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it is as the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers and the flowers fade beneath the breath of the LORD . And so it is with people.
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The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”
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The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.
9 O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Judah, “Your God is coming!”
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You who tell good news to Tziyon, go up on a high mountain; you who tell good news to Yerushalayim, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, don't be afraid; say to the cities of Yehudah, Behold, your God!
10 Yes, the Sovereign LORD is coming in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.
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Behold, the Lord GOD will come as a mighty one, and his arm will rule for him: Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young.
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He will feed his flock like a shepherd, he will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom, [and] will gently lead those who have their young.
12 Who else has held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight of the earth or has weighed the mountains and hills on a scale?
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Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the sky with the span, and comprehended the dust of the eretz in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 Who is able to advise the Spirit of the LORD ? Who knows enough to give him advice or teach him?
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Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counselor has taught him?
14 Has the LORD ever needed anyone’s advice? Does he need instruction about what is good? Did someone teach him what is right or show him the path of justice?
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With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shown to him the way of understanding?
15 No, for all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.
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Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small dust of the balance: Behold, he takes up the isles as a very little thing.
16 All the wood in Lebanon’s forests and all Lebanon’s animals would not be enough to make a burnt offering worthy of our God.
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Levanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the animals of it sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 The nations of the world are worth nothing to him. In his eyes they count for less than nothing— mere emptiness and froth.
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All the nations are as nothing before him; they are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom can you compare God? What image can you find to resemble him?
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To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare to him?
19 Can he be compared to an idol formed in a mold, overlaid with gold, and decorated with silver chains?
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The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains.
20 Or if people are too poor for that, they might at least choose wood that won’t decay and a skilled craftsman to carve an image that won’t fall down!
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He who is too impoverished for [such] an offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a skillful workman to set up an engraved image, that shall not be moved.
21 Haven’t you heard? Don’t you understand? Are you deaf to the words of God— the words he gave before the world began? Are you so ignorant?
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Have you not known? have yet not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the eretz?
22 God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes his tent from them.
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[It is] he who sits above the circle of the eretz, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in;
23 He judges the great people of the world and brings them all to nothing.
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who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the eretz as vanity.
24 They hardly get started, barely taking root, when he blows on them and they wither. The wind carries them off like chaff.
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Yes, they have not been planted; yes, they have not been sown; yes, their stock has not taken root in the eretz: moreover he blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble.
25 “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One.
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To whom then will you liken me, that I should be equal [to him]? says the Holy One.
26 Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
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Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking.
27 O Jacob, how can you say the LORD does not see your troubles? O Israel, how can you say God ignores your rights?
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Why say you, Ya`akov, and speak, Yisra'el, My way is hid from the LORD, and the justice [due] to me is passed away from my God?
28 Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
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Have you not known? have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the eretz, doesn't faint, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
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He gives power to the faint; and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion.
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Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
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but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.