A thoroughfare will be there – it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel on it; it is reserved for those authorized to use it – fools will not stray into it.

“Indeed, my plans are not like your plans, and my deeds are not like your deeds,

for just as the sky is higher than the earth, so my deeds are superior to your deeds and my plans superior to your plans.

He says, “Build it! Build it! Clear a way! Remove all the obstacles out of the way of my people!”

I will make all my mountains into a road; I will construct my roadways.”

I, I have spoken – yes, I have summoned him; I lead him and he will succeed.

I have seen their behavior, but I will heal them and give them rest, and I will once again console those who mourn.

Oppressors treat my people cruelly; creditors rule over them. My people’s leaders mislead them; they give you confusing directions.

Turn aside from the way, stray off the path. Remove from our presence the Holy One of Israel.”

He will go back the way he came – he will not enter this city,’ says the Lord.

A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the Lord; construct in the desert a road for our God.

From whom does he receive directions? Who teaches him the correct way to do things, or imparts knowledge to him, or instructs him in skillful design?

Why do you say, Jacob, Why do you say, Israel, “The Lord is not aware of what is happening to me, My God is not concerned with my vindication”?

This is what the Lord says, the one who made a road through the sea, a pathway through the surging waters,

You will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in dark dungeons, ‘Emerge.’ They will graze beside the roads; on all the slopes they will find pasture.

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him.

I was angry because of their sinful greed; I attacked them and angrily rejected them, yet they remained disobedient and stubborn.

Why, Lord, do you make us stray from your ways, and make our minds stubborn so that we do not obey you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your inheritance!

Indeed this is what the Lord told me. He took hold of me firmly and warned me not to act like these people:

The Lord who commands armies is about to beat them with a whip, similar to the way he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will use his staff against the sea, lifting it up as he did in Egypt.