A voice cries out, "Prepare in the wilderness a road for the LORD! Clear the way in the desert for our God!

Let everyone who lives in Zion shout and sing! Israel's holy God is great, and he lives among his people."

The LORD says, "Shout as loud as you can! Tell my people Israel about their sins!

The Sovereign LORD has filled me with his Spirit. He has chosen me and sent me To bring good news to the poor, To heal the broken-hearted, To announce release to captives And freedom to those in prison.

He has sent me to proclaim That the time has come When the LORD will save his people And defeat their enemies. He has sent me to comfort all who mourn,

to proclaim this message to everyone in Jerusalem. "I remember how faithful you were when you were young, how you loved me when we were first married; you followed me through the desert, through a land that had not been planted.

Yes, the time is coming when sentries will call out on the hills of Ephraim, 'Let's go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.' "

Blow the war trumpets in Gibeah! Sound the alarm in Ramah! Raise the war cry at Bethaven! Into battle, men of Benjamin!

The people who lived there were powerless; they were frightened and stunned. They were like grass in a field or weeds growing on a roof when the hot east wind blasts them.

We grow and wither as quickly as flowers; we disappear like shadows.

You carry us away like a flood; we last no longer than a dream. We are like weeds that sprout in the morning,

that grow and burst into bloom, then dry up and die in the evening.

the wicked may grow like weeds, those who do wrong may prosper; yet they will be totally destroyed,

My life is like the evening shadows; I am like dry grass.

As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower;

then the wind blows on it, and it is gone--- no one sees it again.

and the rich Christians must be glad when God brings them down. For the rich will pass away like the flower of a wild plant.

The sun rises with its blazing heat and burns the plant; its flower falls off, and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way the rich will be destroyed while they go about their business.

As the scripture says, "All human beings are like grass, and all their glory is like wild flowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall,