6. Do you hear that noisein the city and those shoutscoming from the temple?It is the Lord shoutingas he punishes his enemies.
7. Have you ever heard of a womanwho gave birth to a childbefore having labour pains?
8. Who ever heard of such a thingor imagined it could happen?Can a nation be born in a dayor come to life in a second?Jerusalem is like a motherwho gave birth to her childrenas soon as she was in labour.
9. The Lord is the onewho makes birth possible.And he will see that Zionhas many more children.The Lord has spoken.
10. If you love Jerusalem,celebrate and shout!If you were in sorrowbecause of the city,you can now be glad.
11. She will nurse and comfort you,just like your own mother,until you are satisfied.You will fully enjoyher wonderful glory.
12. The Lord has promised:“I will flood Jerusalemwith the wealth of nationsand make the city prosper.Zion will nurse you at her breast,carry you in her arms,and hold you in her lap.
13. I will comfort you therelike a mothercomforting her child.”
14. When you see this happen,you will celebrate;your strength will returnfaster than grass can sprout.Then everyone will knowthat the Lord is presentwith his servants,but he is angrywith his enemies.
15. The Lord will come downlike a whirlwindwith his flaming chariots.He will be terribly furiousand punish his enemieswith fire.
16. The Lord's fiery swordwill bring justiceeverywhere on this earthand execute many people.
17. Some of you get yourselves ready and go to a garden to worship a foreign goddess. You eat the meat of pigs, lizards, and mice. But I, the Lord, will destroy you for this.
18. I know everything you do and think! The time has now come to bring together the people of every language and nation and to show them my glory
19. by proving what I can do. I will send the survivors to Tarshish, Pul, Lud, Meshech, Tubal, Javan, and to the distant islands. I will send them to announce my wonderful glory to nations that have never heard about me.
20. They will bring your relatives from the nations as an offering to me, the Lord. They will come on horses, chariots, wagons, mules, and camels to Jerusalem, my holy mountain. It will be like the people of Israel bringing the right offering to my temple.
21. I promise that some of them will be priests and others will be helpers in my temple. I, the Lord, have spoken.
22. I also promise that you will always have descendants and will never be forgotten, just as the new heavens and the new earth that I create will last for ever.
23. On the first day of each month and on each Sabbath, everyone will worship me. I, the Lord, have spoken.
24. My people will go out and look at the dead bodies of those who turned against me. The worms there never die, the fire never stops burning, and the sight of those bodies will be disgusting to everyone.