2 Speak kindly to Jerusalemand announce:Your slavery is past;your punishment is over.I, the Lord, made you paydouble for your sins.”
3 Someone is shouting:“Clear a path in the desert!Make a straight roadfor the Lord our God.
4 Fill in the valleys;flatten every hilland mountain.Level the roughand rugged ground.
5 Then the glory of the Lordwill appear for all to see.The Lord has promised this!”
6 Someone told me to shout,and I asked,“What should I shout?”We humans are merely grass,and we last no longerthan wild flowers.
7 At the Lord's command,flowers and grass disappear,and so do we.
8 Flowers and grass fade away,but what our God has saidwill never change.