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    “With gentle words, tender and kind,
Assure Jerusalem, this chosen city from long ago,
    that her battles are over.
    The terror, the bloodshed, the horror of My punishing work is done.
This place has paid for its guilt; iniquity is pardoned;
    its term of incarceration is complete.
It has endured double the punishment it was due.”

A voice is wailing, “In the wilderness, get it ready! Prepare the way;
    make it a straight shot. The Eternal would have it so.
Straighten the way in the wandering desert
    to make the crooked road wide and straight for our God.[a]
Where there are steep valleys, treacherous descents,
    raise the highway; lift it up;
    bring down the dizzying heights.
Fill in the potholes and gullies, the rough places.
    Iron out the shoulders flat and wide.

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Footnotes

  1. 40:3 Mark 1:3; John 1:23

Speak tenderly(A) to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service(B) has been completed,(C)
    that her sin has been paid for,(D)
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double(E) for all her sins.

A voice of one calling:
“In the wilderness prepare
    the way(F) for the Lord[a];
make straight(G) in the desert
    a highway for our God.[b](H)
Every valley shall be raised up,(I)
    every mountain and hill(J) made low;
the rough ground shall become level,(K)
    the rugged places a plain.

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 40:3 Or A voice of one calling in the wilderness: / “Prepare the way for the Lord
  2. Isaiah 40:3 Hebrew; Septuagint make straight the paths of our God