STANZA 1
Comfort, comfort ye my people,
speak ye peace, thus saith our God;
comfort those who sit in darkness
mourning ‘neath their sorrow’s load. 
Speak ye to Jerusalem 
of the peace that waits for them!
Tell her that her sins I cover,
and her warfare now is over.

STANZA 2
Yea, her sins our God will pardon,
blotting out each dark misdeed;
all that well deserved His anger
He will no more see nor heed.
She hath suffered many a day,
now her griefs have passed away;
God will change her pining sadness
into ever-springing gladness.

STANZA 3
For Elijah’s voice is crying
in the desert far and near,
bidding all men to repentance,
since the kingdom now is here.
O that warning cry obey,
now prepare for God a way;
let the valleys rise to meet Him,
and the hills bow down to greet Him.

STANZA 4
Make ye straight what long was crooked,
make the rougher places plain,
let your hearts be true and humble,
as befits His holy reign;
for the glory of the LORD
now o’er earth is shed abroad,
and all flesh shall see the token
that His Word is never broken.

—Isaiah 40:1–5; Johann Olearius, 1671
trans. Catherine Winkworth, 1863