"And now you say to me, 'You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.

The LORD says, "When that time comes, the people of both Israel and Judah will come weeping, looking for me, their God.

Let those who wept as they planted their crops, gather the harvest with joy!

Those who wept as they went out carrying the seed will come back singing for joy, as they bring in the harvest.

he fought against an angel and won. He wept and asked for a blessing. And at Bethel God came to our ancestor Jacob and spoke with him.

"I will fill the descendants of David and the other people of Jerusalem with the spirit of mercy and the spirit of prayer. They will look at the one whom they stabbed to death, and they will mourn for him like those who mourn for an only child. They will mourn bitterly, like those who have lost their first-born son.

O God, hear my prayer and pleading. Restore your Temple, which has been destroyed; restore it so that everyone will know that you are God.

Listen to us, O God; look at us and see the trouble we are in and the suffering of the city that bears your name. We are praying to you because you are merciful, not because we have done right.

"Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!

"Happy are you who are hungry now; you will be filled! "Happy are you who weep now; you will laugh!

In the same way the Spirit also comes to help us, weak as we are. For we do not know how we ought to pray; the Spirit himself pleads with God for us in groans that words cannot express.

But now I am happy---not because I made you sad, but because your sadness made you change your ways. That sadness was used by God, and so we caused you no harm.

See what God did with this sadness of yours: how earnest it has made you, how eager to prove your innocence! Such indignation, such alarm, such feelings, such devotion, such readiness to punish wrongdoing! You have shown yourselves to be without fault in the whole matter.

In his life on earth Jesus made his prayers and requests with loud cries and tears to God, who could save him from death. Because he was humble and devoted, God heard him.

He lets me rest in fields of green grass and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.

The lame will leap and dance, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy. Streams of water will flow through the desert;

There will be a highway there, called "The Road of Holiness." No sinner will ever travel that road; no fools will mislead those who follow it.

"When my people in their need look for water, when their throats are dry with thirst, then I, the LORD, will answer their prayer; I, the God of Israel, will never abandon them.

I will make cedars grow in the desert, and acacias and myrtles and olive trees. Forests will grow in barren land, forests of pine and juniper and cypress.

Long ago the LORD made a road through the sea, a path through the swirling waters.

But the LORD says, "Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago.

I will say to the prisoners, 'Go free!' and to those who are in darkness, 'Come out to the light!' They will be like sheep that graze on the hills;

"I will make a highway across the mountains and prepare a road for my people to travel.

because the Lamb, who is in the center of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

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

Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.

The LORD says, "Let my people return to me. Remove every obstacle from their path! Build the road and make it ready!

(SEE 63:12)

John was the man the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he said, "Someone is shouting in the desert, 'Prepare a road for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel!' "

As it is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: "Someone is shouting in the desert: 'Get the road ready for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel!

The whole human race will see God's salvation!' "

Keep walking on straight paths, so that the lame foot may not be disabled, but instead be healed.

"Israel, you are my dearest child, the one I love best. Whenever I mention your name, I think of you with love. My heart goes out to you; I will be merciful.

"And now you say to me, 'You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child.

The LORD says, "Israel, I wanted to accept you as my child and give you a delightful land, the most beautiful land in all the world. I wanted you to call me father and never again turn away from me.

Then you must tell him that I, the LORD, say, 'Israel is my first-born son.

Is this the way you should treat the LORD, you foolish, senseless people? He is your father, your Creator, he made you into a nation.

There in front of the whole assembly King David praised the LORD. He said, "LORD God of our ancestor Jacob, may you be praised forever and ever!

You are our father. Our ancestors Abraham and Jacob do not acknowledge us, but you, LORD, are our father, the one who has always rescued us.

But you are our father, LORD. We are like clay, and you are like the potter. You created us,

This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven: May your holy name be honored;

I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

You have come to the joyful gathering of God's first-born, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, who is the judge of all people, and to the spirits of good people made perfect.

in the same way as shepherds take care of their sheep that were scattered and are brought together again. I will bring them back from all the places where they were scattered on that dark, disastrous day.

I will let them graze in safety in the mountain meadows and the valleys and in all the green pastures of the land of Israel.