Hope for Israel and Judah

“ In those days and at that time,

declares the LORD,

the children of Israel and the children of Judah

will come together, weeping as they come,

and will seek the LORD their God.

5 

They will ask the way to Zion

[and turn] their faces toward it.

They will come and join themselves to the LORD

in an everlasting covenant

that will never be forgotten.

6 

My people are lost sheep;

their shepherds have led them astray,

causing them to roam the mountains.

They have wandered from mountain to hill;

they have forgotten their resting place.

7 

All who found them devoured them,

and their enemies said,

‘We are not guilty,

for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture,

the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’

8 

Flee from the midst of Babylon;

depart from the land of the Chaldeans;

be like the he-goats that lead the flock.

9 

For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon

an assembly of great nations from the land of the north.

They will line up against her;

from [the north] she will be captured.

Their arrows will be like skilled warriors

who do not return empty-handed.

10 

Chaldea[fn] will be plundered;

all who plunder her will have their fill,” declares the LORD.

11