Isaiah 40:2-4

Holman Christian Standard Bible

²“Speak tenderly to^[a] Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of forced labor is over,
her iniquity^(A) has been pardoned,^(B)
and she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”^(C)

³A voice of one crying out:

Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;^(D)
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.^(E)
⁴Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.^(F)