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.
The 144,000 of Israel Sealed
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the useal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, v“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God won their foreheads.” 4 And xI heard the number of the sealed, y144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
A Great Multitude from Every Nation
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, zfrom every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the aLamb, clothed in bwhite robes, with cpalm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation dbelongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the efour living creatures, and they ffell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, g“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the hgreat tribulation. They have iwashed their robes and made them jwhite in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him kday and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 lThey shall mhunger no more, nneither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their oshepherd,
and he will guide them to psprings of living water,
and God will qwipe away every tear from their eyes.”
