1. “Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth!Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor!For the children of the desolate one are more numerousthan the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.
2. Make your tent larger,stretch your tent curtains farther out!Spare no effort,lengthen your ropes,and pound your stakes deep.
3. For you will spread out to the right and to the left;your children will conquer nationsand will resettle desolate cities.
4. Don’t be afraid, for you will not be put to shame!Don’t be intimidated, for you will not be humiliated!You will forget about the shame you experienced in your youth;you will no longer remember the disgrace of your abandonment.
5. For your husband is the one who made you – the Lord who commands armies is his name.He is your protector, the Holy One of Israel.He is called “God of the entire earth.”
6. “Indeed, the Lord will call you backlike a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression,like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.
7. “For a short time I abandoned you,but with great compassion I will gather you.
8. In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily,but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you,”says your protector, the Lord.
9. “As far as I am concerned, this is like in Noah’s time,when I vowed that the waters of Noah’s flood would never again cover the earth.In the same way I have vowed that I will not be angry at you or shout at you.
10. Even if the mountains are removedand the hills displaced,my devotion will not be removed from you,nor will my covenant of friendship be displaced,”says the Lord, the one who has compassion on you.
11. “O afflicted one, driven away, and unconsoled!Look, I am about to set your stones in antimonyand I lay your foundation with lapis-lazuli.