But you are the ones who will be forced to leave! For this land is not secure; sin will thoroughly destroy it!

If a lying windbag should come and say, ‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ he would be just the right preacher for these people!

The Lord Will Restore His People

“I will certainly gather all of you, O Jacob, I will certainly assemble those Israelites who remain. I will bring them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the middle of a pasture; they will be so numerous that they will make a lot of noise.

The one who can break through barriers will lead them out; they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave. Their king will advance before them; the class="small-caps" >Lord himself will lead them.”

yet you hate what is good and love what is evil. You flay my people’s skin and rip the flesh from their bones.

You devour my people’s flesh, strip off their skin, and crush their bones. You chop them up like flesh in a pot— like meat in a kettle.

Someday these sinful leaders will cry to the class="small-caps" >Lord for help, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because they have done such wicked deeds.”

This is what the class="small-caps" >Lord has said about the prophets who mislead my people, “If someone gives them enough to eat, they offer an oracle of peace. But if someone does not give them food, they are ready to declare war on him.

Therefore night will fall, and you will receive no visions; it will grow dark, and you will no longer be able to read the omens. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn to darkness over their heads.

The prophets will be ashamed; the omen readers will be humiliated. All of them will cover their mouths, for they will receive no divine oracles.”

But I am full of the courage that the class="small-caps" >Lord’s Spirit gives and have a strong commitment to justice. This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion and Israel with its sin.

You build Zion through bloody crimes, Jerusalem through unjust violence.

Her leaders take bribes when they decide legal cases, her priests proclaim rulings for profit, and her prophets read omens for pay. Yet they claim to trust the class="small-caps" >Lord and say, “The class="small-caps" >Lord is among us. Disaster will not overtake us!”

Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed up like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount will become a hill overgrown with brush!

Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

And in future days the class="small-caps" >Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; it will be more prominent than other hills. People will stream to it.

Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the class="small-caps" >Lord’s mountain, to the temple of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his ways and we can live by his laws.” For instruction will proceed from Zion, the class="small-caps" >Lord’s message from Jerusalem.

He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war.

Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear. The class="small-caps" >Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it.

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

“In that day,” says the class="small-caps" >Lord, “I will gather the lame and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.

As for you, watchtower for the flock, fortress of Daughter Zion— your former dominion will be restored, the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly? Has your king disappeared? Has your wise leader been destroyed? Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor?

Twist and strain, Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor! For you will leave the city and live in the open field. You will go to Babylon, but there you will be rescued. There the class="small-caps" >Lord will deliver you from the power of your enemies.

Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, so we can gloat over Zion!”

But they do not know what the class="small-caps" >Lord is planning; they do not understand his strategy. He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor.

“Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion! For I will give you iron horns; I will give you bronze hooves, and you will crush many nations.” You will devote to the class="small-caps" >Lord the spoils you take from them and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.