First Reading

Thus says the Lord:

Lo, I am about to create new heavens

and a new earth;

The things of the past shall not be remembered

or come to mind.

Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness

in what I create;

For I create Jerusalem to be a joy

and its people to be a delight;

I will rejoice in Jerusalem

and exult in my people.

No longer shall the sound of weeping be heard there,

or the sound of crying;

No longer shall there be in it

an infant who lives but a few days,

or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime;

He dies a mere youth who reaches but a hundred years,

and he who fails of a hundred shall be thought accursed.

They shall live in the houses they build,

and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant.