^w“‘It shall not stand,

and it shall not come to pass.

8  For the head of Syria is ^xDamascus,

and the head of Damascus is Rezin.

And within sixty-five years

Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.

9  And the head of Ephraim is Samaria,

and the head of Samaria is ^ythe son of Remaliah.

^zIf you⁵ are not firm in faith,

you will not be firm at all.’”

1  There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of ^lJesse,

and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

2  And ^mthe Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,

the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the Spirit of counsel and might,

the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

3  And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

ⁿHe shall not judge by ^owhat his eyes see,

or decide disputes by ^owhat his ears hear,

4  but ^pwith righteousness he shall judge the poor,

and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;

and he shall ^qstrike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

and ^rwith the breath of his lips ^she shall kill the wicked.

5  Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist,

and ^tfaithfulness the belt of his loins.

6  ^uThe wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,

and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;

and a little child shall lead them.

7  The cow and the bear shall graze;

their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

8  The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.

9  ^uThey shall not hurt or destroy

in all ^vmy holy mountain;

^wfor the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.

12  He will raise ^za signal for the nations

and will assemble ⁱthe banished of Israel,

and gather the dispersed of Judah

from the four corners of the earth.

13  ^jThe jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,

and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;

Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,

and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.

14  ^kBut they shall swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines in the west,

and together they shall plunder ^lthe people of the east.

They shall put out their hand ^magainst ⁿEdom and ^oMoab,

and ^pthe Ammonites shall obey them.

15  And the Lord will utterly destroy²

^qthe tongue of the Sea of Egypt,

and will wave his hand over ^rthe River³

with his scorching breath,⁴

and strike it into seven channels,

and he will lead people across in sandals.

16  And there will be ^sa highway from Assyria

for the remnant that remains of his people,

^tas there was for Israel

when they came up from the land of Egypt.

1  ^tThe wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;

^uthe desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;

2  it shall blossom abundantly

and rejoice with joy and singing.

^vThe glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,

the majesty of ^wCarmel and ^xSharon.

^yThey shall see the glory of the Lord,

the majesty of our God.

3  ^zStrengthen the weak hands,

and make firm the feeble knees.

4  Say to those who have an anxious heart,

“Be strong; fear not!

^aBehold, your God

will come with vengeance,

with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.”

5  ^bThen the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

and the ears of the deaf unstopped;

6  ^bthen shall the lame man leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.

^cFor waters break forth in the wilderness,

and streams in the desert;

7  ^dthe burning sand shall become a pool,

and the thirsty ground springs of water;

in the haunt of ^ejackals, where they lie down,

the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8  ^fAnd a highway shall be there,

and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;

^gthe unclean shall not pass over it.

It shall belong to those who walk on the way;

even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.¹

9  No lion shall be there,

nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;

they shall not be found there,

but the redeemed shall walk there.

10  ^hAnd the ransomed of the Lord shall return

and come to Zion with singing;

ⁱeverlasting joy shall be upon their heads;

they shall obtain gladness and joy,

and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

1  ^zComfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2  ^aSpeak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that ^bher warfare¹ is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.

3  ^cA voice cries:²

^d“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;

^emake straight in the desert a highway for our God.

4  ^fEvery valley shall be lifted up,

and every mountain and hill be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level,

and the rough places a plain.

5  ^gAnd the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,

and all flesh shall see it together,

^hfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6  A voice says, “Cry!”

And I said,³ “What shall I cry?”

ⁱAll flesh is grass,

and all its beauty⁴ is like the flower of the field.

7  The grass withers, the flower fades

when the breath of the Lord blows on it;

surely the people are grass.

8  ^jThe grass withers, the flower fades,

but the word of our God will stand forever.

9  Go on up to a high mountain,

O Zion, ^kherald of good news;⁵

lift up your voice with strength,

O Jerusalem, herald of good news;⁶

lift it up, fear not;

say to the cities of Judah,

“Behold your God!”

10  ^lBehold, the Lord God comes with might,

and his arm rules for him;

^mbehold, his reward is with him,

and his recompense before him.

11  ⁿHe will tend his flock like a shepherd;

^ohe will gather the lambs in his arms;

^phe will carry them in his bosom,

and gently lead those that are with young.

12  ^qWho has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure

and weighed the mountains in scales

and the hills in a balance?

13  ^rWho has measured⁷ the Spirit of the Lord,

or what man shows him his counsel?

14  Whom did he consult,

and who made him understand?

^sWho taught him the path of justice,

and taught him knowledge,

and showed him the way of understanding?

15  Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,

and are accounted ^tas the dust on the scales;

behold, he takes up ^uthe coastlands like fine dust.

16  Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,

nor are ^vits beasts enough for a burnt offering.

17  ^wAll the nations are as nothing before him,

they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

18  ^xTo whom then will you liken God,

^yor what likeness compare with him?

19  ^yAn idol! A craftsman casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and casts for it silver chains.

20  ^zHe who is too impoverished for an offering

chooses wood⁸ that will not rot;

he seeks out a skillful craftsman

to set up an idol that will not move.

21  ^aDo you not know? Do you not hear?

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 ^blike grasshoppers;

^cwho stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

23  ^dwho brings princes to nothing,

and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

24  Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,

scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,

when he blows on them, and they wither,

^eand the tempest carries them off like stubble.

25  ^fTo whom then will you compare me,

that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

26  Lift up your eyes on high and see:

who created these?

^gHe who brings out their host by number,

calling them all by name;

by the greatness of his might

and because he is strong in power,

not one is missing.

27  Why do you say, O Jacob,

and speak, O Israel,

^h“My way is hidden from the Lord,

ⁱand my right is disregarded by my God”?

28  Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The Lord is ^jthe everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

^khis understanding is unsearchable.

29  He gives power to the faint,

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30  Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31  but ^lthey who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings ^mlike eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

1  ^gWho has believed what he has heard from us?¹

And to whom has ^hthe arm of the Lord been revealed?

2  For he grew up before him like a young plant,

ⁱand like a root out of dry ground;

^jhe had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

3  ^kHe was despised and rejected² by men,

a man of sorrows³ and acquainted with⁴ grief;⁵

and as one from whom men hide their faces⁶

he was despised, and ^lwe esteemed him not.

4  ^mSurely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

ⁿsmitten by God, and afflicted.

5  ^oBut he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

^pand with his wounds we are healed.

6  ^qAll we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

^rand the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,

^syet he opened not his mouth;

^tlike a ^ulamb that is led to the slaughter,

and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

so he opened not his mouth.

8  By oppression and judgment he was taken away;

and as for his generation, ^vwho considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living,

stricken for the transgression of my people?

9  And they made his grave with the wicked

^wand with a rich man in his death,

although^{7 x}he had done no violence,

and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10  Yet ^yit was the will of the Lord to crush him;

he has put him to grief;⁸

^zwhen his soul makes⁹ an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

^athe will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11  Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see¹⁰ and be satisfied;

by his knowledge shall ^bthe righteous one, my servant,

^cmake many to be accounted righteous,

^dand he shall bear their iniquities.

12  ^eTherefore I will divide him a portion with the many,¹¹

^fand he shall divide the spoil with the strong,¹²

because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors;

^gyet he bore the sin of many,

and makes intercession for the transgressors.

1  ^gI was ready to be sought by ^hthose who did not ask for me;

I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, “Here I am, here I am,”

to a nation that was not called by¹ my name.

2  ⁱI spread out my hands all the day

to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices;

3  a people who provoke me

to my face continually,

^jsacrificing in gardens

and making offerings on bricks;

4  who sit in tombs,

and spend the night in secret places;

^kwho eat pig’s flesh,

and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;

5  who say, “Keep to yourself,

do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”

^lThese are a smoke in my nostrils,

a fire that burns all the day.

6  Behold, ^mit is written before me:

ⁿ“I will not keep silent, but I will repay;

^oI will indeed repay into their lap

7  both your iniquities ^pand your fathers’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;

^qbecause they made offerings on the mountains

^qand insulted me on the hills,

I will measure into their lap

payment for their former deeds.”²

8  Thus says the Lord:

^r“As the new wine is found in the cluster,

and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,

for there is a blessing in it,’

so I will do for my servants’ sake,

^sand not destroy them all.

9  ^tI will bring forth offspring from Jacob,

and from Judah possessors of my mountains;

my chosen shall possess it,

and my servants shall dwell there.

10  ^uSharon shall become a pasture for flocks,

and ^vthe Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down,

for my people ^wwho have sought me.

11  But ^xyou who forsake the Lord,

who forget ^ymy holy mountain,

who ^zset a table for Fortune

and ^zfill cups of mixed wine for Destiny,

12  I will destine you to the sword,

and all of you shall bow down to the slaughter,

^abecause, when I called, you did not answer;

when I spoke, you did not listen,

^bbut you did what was evil in my eyes

and chose what I did not delight in.”

13  Therefore thus says the Lord God:

“Behold, ^cmy servants shall eat,

but you shall be hungry;

behold, my servants shall drink,

but you shall be thirsty;

behold, my servants shall rejoice,

but you shall be put to shame;

14  behold, ^dmy servants shall sing for gladness of heart,

but you shall cry out for pain of heart

and shall wail for breaking of spirit.

15  You shall leave your name to ^emy chosen ^ffor a curse,

and the Lord God will put you to death,

but his servants ^ghe will call by another name,

16  so that he who ^hblesses himself in the land

shall bless himself by ^hthe God of truth,

and he who takes an oath in the land

shall swear by ⁱthe God of truth;

^jbecause the former troubles are forgotten

and are hidden from my eyes.

17  “For behold, ^kI create new heavens

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

18  But be glad and rejoice forever

in that which I create;

for behold, ^lI create Jerusalem to be a joy,

and her people to be a gladness.

19  ^mI will rejoice in Jerusalem

and be glad in my people;

ⁿno more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping

and the cry of distress.

20  No more shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for ^othe young man shall die a hundred years old,

and ^pthe sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed.

21  ^qThey shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22  ^qThey shall not build and another inhabit;