2 “Speak¹ comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
^aFor she has received from the Lord’s hand
Double for all her sins.” ‡

3 ^aThe voice of one crying in the wilderness:
^b“Prepare the way of the Lord;
^cMake straight¹ in the desert
A highway for our God. ‡

6 The voice said, “Cry out!”
And¹ he said, “What shall I cry?”
^a“All flesh is grass,
And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. ‡

7 The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because the breath of the Lord blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.