The consolation of Zion

Wasted Zion will be rebuilt and repeopled

14 ‘But the Lord,’ says Zion, ‘has left me;

my Lord has forgotten me clean.’

15 Can a woman forget her babe,

cease to pity the son of her womb?

Yes, such may indeed forget,

but never will I forget you.

16 I have graven you on my hands,

and your walls are for ever before me:

17 in haste men are coming to build you;

while those who have torn you down

and laid you in ruins, will leave you.

18 Lift up your eyes round about, and behold

how they flock to you, all of them gathered together.

Yea, thus says the Lord on oath, as I live,

you will wear them upon you as jewels on a garment,

and bind them about you as bride binds her girdle.

19 For your desolate wastes and your ruined land

(will be turned to a garden and crowded with men.)

Then scarce room enough you will have for your people,

when those who devoured you are far away.

20 The children you long were bereft of

will one day declare in your ears,

‘This place is too narrow for me,

give me ampler space to dwell in.’

21 And then you will say in your heart,

‘Who can have borne me these children?

Since I am bereaved and unfruitful,

who can have reared these children?

Behold! I was left all alone:

who then can these children be?’