1 “Heaven is my throne,” saysAdonai,
“and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house could you build for me?
What sort of place could you devise for my rest?
2 Didn’t I myself make all these things?
This is how they all came to be,”
saysAdonai.
“The kind of person on whom I look with favor
is one with a poor and humble spirit,
who trembles at my word.
3 Those others might as well kill a person as an ox,
as well break a dog’s neck as sacrifice a lamb,
as well offer pig’s blood as offer a grain offering,
as well bless an idol as burn incense.
Just as these have chosen their ways
and enjoy their disgusting practices,
4 so I will enjoy making fools of them,
and bring on them the very things they fear.
For when I called, no one answered;
when I spoke, they did not hear.
Instead they did what was evil in my sight
and chose what did not please me.”
5 Hear the word ofAdonai,
you who tremble at his word:
“Your brothers, who hate you and reject you
because of my name, have said:
‘LetAdonaibe glorified,
so we can see your joy.’
But they will be put to shame.”
6 That uproar in the city,
that sound from the temple,
is the sound ofAdonairepaying
his foes what they deserve.
7 Before going into labor, she gave birth;
before her pains came, she delivered a male child.
8 Who ever heard of such a thing?
Who has ever seen such things?
Is a country born in one day?
Is a nation brought forth all at once?
For as soon as Tziyon went into labor,
she brought forth her children.
9 “Would I let the baby break through
and not be born?” asksAdonai.
“Would I, who cause the birth,
shut the womb?” asks your God.
10 Rejoice with Yerushalayim!
Be glad with her, all you who love her!
Rejoice, rejoice with her,
all of you who mourned for her;
11 so that you nurse and are satisfied
by her comforting breast,
drinking deeply and delighting
in the overflow of her glory.
12 ForAdonaisays, “I will spreadshalom
over her like a river,
and the wealth of nations
like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried in her arm
and cuddled in her lap.
13 Like someone comforted by his mother,
I will comfort you;
in Yerushalayim
you will be comforted.”
14 Your heart will rejoice at the sight,
your bodies will flourish like newly sprouted grass.
It will be known that the hand ofAdonai
is with his servants; but with his enemies, his fury.
15 For — look! —Adonaiwill come in fire,
and his chariots will be like the whirlwind,
to render his anger furiously,
his rebuke with blazing fire.
16 ForAdonaiwill judge all humanity
with fire and with the sword,
and those slain byAdonaiwill be many.
17 “Those who consecrate and purify themselves
in order to enter the gardens,
then follow the one who was already there,
eating pig meat, reptiles and mice,
will all be destroyed together,” saysAdonai.
18 “For I [know] their deeds and their thoughts.
“[The time] is coming when I will gather together all nations and languages. They will come and see my glory,
19 and I will give them a sign. I will send some of their survivors to the nations of Tarshish, Pul, Lud (these are archers), Tuval, Greece and more distant coasts, where they have neither heard of my fame nor seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory in these nations;
20 and they will bring all your kinsmen out of all the nations as an offering toAdonai— on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, on camels — to my holy mountain Yerushalayim,” saysAdonai, “just as the people of Isra’el themselves bring their offerings in clean vessels to the house ofAdonai.
21 I will also takecohanimandL’vi’imfrom them,” saysAdonai.
22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth that I am making will continue in my presence,” saysAdonai, “so will your descendants and your name continue.
23 “Every month onRosh-Hodesh
and every week onShabbat,
everyone living will come
to worship in my presence,” saysAdonai.
24 “As they leave, they will look on the corpses
of the people who rebelled against me.
For their worm will never die,
and their fire will never be quenched;
but they will be abhorrent
to all humanity.”
[“Every month onRosh-Hodesh
and every week onShabbat,
everyone living will come
to worship in my presence,” saysAdonai.]