1. Thus says Adonai: “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is the House you would build for Me? Where is the place of My rest?
2. For My hand has made all these things, so all these things came to be,” declares Adonai. “But on this one will I look, one humble and of a contrite spirit, who trembles at My word.”
3. One who kills an ox is like one who kills a man; one who sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog’s neck; one who offers a grain offering is like one who offers swine’s blood; one who burns incense is like one who blesses an idol. They have chosen their own ways, so their soul delights in their abominations.
4. So I will choose their punishments and bring on them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they did not listen. But they did what was evil in My eyes, and chose what I did not delight in.
5. Hear the word of Adonai, you who tremble at His word: “Your brothers who hated you, excluding you for My Name’s sake, have said, ‘Let Adonai be glorified, that we may see your joy’— but they will be put to shame.”
6. A sound of uproar from the city, a sound from the Temple— the sound of Adonai who fully repays His enemies.
7. Before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a male child.
8. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.
9. “Will I bring the moment of birth, and not give delivery?” says Adonai. “Will I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.
10. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her all you who mourned over her.
11. For you will nurse and be satisfied from her comforting breast. You will drink deeply and delight from her glorious abundance.
12. For thus says Adonai: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream. You will be nursed, carried on the hip, and bounced on her knees.
13. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you, so you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
14. You will see, your heart will rejoice, and your bones will flourish like grass. So the hand of Adonai will be known to His servants, and His indignation to His enemies.
15. For behold, Adonai will come in fire, and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire.
16. For by fire and His sword Adonai will execute judgment on all flesh and those slain by Adonai will be many.
17. Those who consecrate and purify themselves to enter the groves, following after one in the midst, who eat swine’s flesh, vermin and mice, will come to an end altogether. It is a declaration of Adonai.
18. “For I know their works and their thoughts. It will come about that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see My glory.
19. Then I will set up a sign among them, and I will send survivors from them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul and Lud (who pull the bow), to Tubal and Javan, to distant islands that have not heard My fame or seen My glory. Then they will declare My glory among the nations.
20. “Then they will bring all your kinsmen from all the nations, as an offering to Adonai, on horses and in chariots, and on litters, mules and camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says Adonai, “just as Bnei-Yisrael bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the House of Adonai.
21. I will also take some of them as priests and for Levites,” says Adonai.
22. “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will endure before Me”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“so your descendants and your name will endure.”
23. “And it will come to pass, that from one New Moon to another, and from one Shabbat to another, all flesh will come to bow down before Me,” says Adonai.
24. “As they leave, they will look on the corpses of the people who rebelled against Me. For their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be a horror to all flesh.”