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³ A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ Every 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 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

⁶ A voice says, ‘Cry out!’
   And I said, ‘What shall I cry?’
All people are grass,
   their constancy is like the flower of the field.
⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades,
   when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
   surely the people are grass.
⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades;
   but the word of our God will stand for ever.
⁹ Get you up to a high mountain,
   O Zion, herald of good tidings;^*
lift up your voice with strength,
   O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,^*
   lift it up, do not fear;
say to the cities of Judah,
   ‘Here is your God!’
¹⁰ See, the Lord God comes with might,
   and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
   and his recompense before him.
¹¹ He will feed his flock like a shepherd;
   he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
   and gently lead the mother sheep.

¹² Who 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 Who has directed the spirit of the Lord,
   or as his counsellor has instructed him?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult for his enlightenment,
   and who taught him the path of justice?
Who taught him knowledge,
   and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Even the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
   and are accounted as dust on the scales;
   see, he takes up the isles like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not provide fuel enough,
   nor are its animals enough for a burnt-offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him;
   they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.