Yahweh will help his people

19 You people who live in Jerusalem [DOU], some day you will not cry any more. Yahweh will be kind to you when you call out to him for help. He will answer/help you as soon as he hears you call. 20 Although now Yahweh has caused you to daily experience [MET] great troubles and suffer much, he, your teacher, will not hide himself from you. He [SYN] will teach you many things clearly. 21 And you will hear him speak to you to guide you. Right behind you he will say, “This is the road on which you should walk; walk on this road!” 22 When that happens, you will destroy all your idols that are covered with silver or gold. You will throw them away like you throw away a filthy rag, and you will say to them, “We do not need you any more!”

23 If you do that, Yahweh will bless you by giving you good rain at the time that you plant your crops. You will have good harvests, and plenty of pasture with grass for your cattle to eat. 24 After the wind blows away the chaff, the oxen and donkeys that pull the plow to plow your ground will have good grain to eat. 25 At that time, when your enemies have been slaughtered and their towers have ◄collapsed/been destroyed►, there will be streams flowing down every hill and mountain in Judah. 26 The moon will seem to shine as brightly as the sun, and the sun will seem to shine seven times as brightly as previously. That is what it will be like when Yahweh causes the suffering of his people to cease; it will be as though [MET] he will be putting bandages on their wounds and healing them.

27 It is as though we see Yahweh coming from far away;

he is extremely angry,

and there are thick clouds of smoke around him.

By what he says [MTY] he shows that he is angry;

what he says is like [SIM] a devastating/destructive fire.

28 His breath is like [SIM] a flood that covers his enemies up to their necks.

He will separate [MET] the nations in order to destroy some of them;

it is as though he will put hooks in their mouths and take them away.

29 But his people will sing joyfully

like they sing during the nights when they celebrate a holy festival.

They will be very joyful,

like [SIM] a large group of his people are joyful when they go up to Zion Hill in Jerusalem,

along with men playing flutes

when they are all going there to worship Yahweh.

He is like [MET] a huge rock under which we Israeli people are safe.

30 And Yahweh will enable us to hear him speaking powerfully/majestically.

He will show us that he [SYN] is very powerful.

We will see him [SYN] smash his enemies.

Being very angry, he will descend with a big rainstorm and thunder and hail to punish them.

31 The soldiers of Assyria will be terrified when they hear the voice of Yahweh

and when he strikes them with his rod.

32 And while Yahweh strikes them to punish them,

his people will celebrate by playing tambourines and harps.

It will be as though Yahweh will lift up his powerful hand/arm and defeat the Assyrian army in battle.

33 The valley of Topheth outside Jerusalem has been prepared for a long time;

it is ready for the king of Assyria;

the ◄funeral pyre/pile of wood► for burning his body is wide and high,

and it will be as though Yahweh will light the fire with his breath,

which will come out like a stream of burning sulfur.