1. In the future, the mountainwith the Lord's templewill be the highest of all.It will reach above the hills,and every nationwill rush to it.
2. People of many nationswill come and say,“Let's go up to the mountainof the Lord God of Jacoband worship in his temple.”The Lord will teach us his Lawfrom Jerusalem,and we will obey him.
3. He will settle argumentsbetween distantand powerful nations.They will beat their swordsand their spearsinto rakes and shovels;they will never again make waror attack one another.
4. Everyone will find restbeneath their own fig treesor grapevines,and they will live in peace.This is a solemn promiseof the Lord All-Powerful.
5. Others may follow their gods,but we will always followthe Lord our God.
6. The Lord said:At that timeI will gather my people—the lame and the outcasts,and all into whose livesI have brought sorrow.
7. Then the lame and the outcastswill belong to my peopleand become a strong nation.I, the Lord, will rule themfrom Mount Zion for ever.
8. Mount Zion in Jerusalem,guardian of my people,you will rule again.
9. Jerusalem, why are you crying?Don't you have a king?Have your advisers gone?Are you sufferinglike a woman in childbirth?
10. Keep on groaning with pain,you people of Jerusalem!If you escape from your cityto the countryside,you will still be takenas prisoners to Babylonia.But later I will rescue youfrom your enemies.
11. Zion, because of your sinsyou are surroundedby many nations who say,“We can hardly waitto see you disgraced.”
12. But they don't knowthat I, the Lord,have gathered them hereto grind them like grain.
13. Smash them to pieces, Zion!I'll let you be like a bullwith iron hornsand bronze hoofs.Crush those nationsand bring their wealth to me,the Lord of the earth.