Restoration Will Follow Crisis

6 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,

and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.

7 I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,

and those far off into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.”

8 As for you, watchtower for the flock,

fortress of Daughter Zion –

your former dominion will be restored,

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

9 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?

10 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 Lord will deliver you

from the power of your enemies.

11 Many nations have now assembled against you.

They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,

so we can gloat over Zion!”

12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;

they do not understand his strategy.

He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor.

13 “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 Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.

5 But now slash yourself, daughter surrounded by soldiers!

We are besieged!

With a scepter they strike Israel’s ruler

on the side of his face.