6. “The time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will gather together the people I punished, those who have suffered in exile.
7. They are crippled and far from home, but I will make a new beginning with those who are left, and they will become a great nation. I will rule over them on Mount Zion from that time on and for ever.”
8. And you, Jerusalem, where God, like a shepherd, watches over his people, will once again be the capital of the kingdom that was yours.
9. Why do you cry out so loudly? Why are you suffering like a woman in labour? Is it because you have no king, and your counsellors are dead?
10. Twist and groan, people of Jerusalem, like a woman giving birth, for now you will have to leave the city and live in the open country. You will have to go to Babylon, but there the Lord will save you from your enemies.
11. Many nations have gathered to attack you. They say, “Jerusalem must be destroyed! We will see this city in ruins!”
12. But these nations do not know what is in the Lord's mind. They do not realize that they have been gathered together to be punished in the same way that corn is brought in to be threshed.