2. Jerusalem, the mother who brought them into the world, says to them, ‘Go your own way, my children; I am now a widow left completely alone.
3. I took great delight in bringing you up, but you sinned against the Lord God and did what I knew was wrong, so I mourned in deep grief when I lost you.
4. What can I do for you, now that I am a widow and left completely alone? Go, my children, and ask the Lord for mercy.’
5. “Father Ezra, I call on you to testify against these people as their mother has done, because they have refused to keep my covenant.
6. Now bring confusion on them and ruin on their mother, so that they will have no descendants.
7. They will be scattered among the nations, and no one on earth will remember them any longer, for they have despised my covenant.
8. “How terrible will be your punishment, Assyria. You have let wicked people hide within your borders. Remember, sinful nation, what I did to Sodom and Gomorrah.
9. Their land now lies covered with lumps of tar and heaps of ashes. That is what I do to people who do not obey me.
10. “The Lord says to Ezra: announce to my new people that I will give them the kingdom of Jerusalem, which I had planned to give to Israel.
11. I will take the dazzling light of my presence away from Israel and will give to my new people the eternal Temple that I had prepared for Israel.
12. The tree of life will fill the air round them with its fragrance. They will never have to work; they will never grow tired.
13. Ask, and you will receive. Pray that the number of the days you have to wait will be reduced. Even now the kingdom has been prepared for you, so stay alert.