Envoys from Babylon
1 aAt that time Merodach-baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armory, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or in all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them. 3 Then Isaiah the prophet came to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon.” 4 He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them.”
5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: 6 Behold, the days are coming, when ball that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be ctaken away, and they shall be eunuchs din the palace of the king of Babylon.” 8 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, e“The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my days.”
Comfort for God’s People
1 fComfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare1 is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
“In the wilderness hprepare 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 And the glory of the Lord shall be irevealed,
and jall flesh shall see it together,
kfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The Word of God Stands Forever
6 A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said,3 “What shall I cry?”
lAll 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 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
The Greatness of God
9 Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;5
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of mgood news;6
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, nhis reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a oshepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who has pmeasured 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 qWho has measured7 the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14 Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who 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 as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17 All the nations are ras nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18 sTo whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
19 An idol! A tcraftsman casts it,
and a ugoldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20 He 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 vnot move.
21 Do 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 like grasshoppers;
who wstretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them xlike a tent to dwell in;
23 who 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,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25 To 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?
yHe 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,
z“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
ahis 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 they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings blike eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Dead to Sin, Alive to God
1 vWhat shall we say then? wAre we to continue in sin that xgrace may abound? 2 By no means! yHow can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been zbaptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were aburied therefore with him by baptism into death, bin order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in cnewness of life.
5 For if we have been dunited with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our eold self1 was fcrucified with him in order that the gbody of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be henslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free2 from sin. 8 Now iif we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being jraised from the dead, will knever die again; ldeath mno longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, nonce for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves odead to sin and palive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its qpassions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but rpresent yourselves to God as those who have been brought sfrom death to life, and your members to God as instruments tfor righteousness. 14 For sin will have no udominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Slaves to Righteousness
15 What then? vAre we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,3 you are slaves of the one whom you obey, weither of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once xslaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set yfree from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking zin human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to asanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But bwhat fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the cfruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 dFor the wages of sin is death, but the efree gift of God is eternal flife in Christ Jesus our Lord.
