Final Judgment and Joyous Restoration
1This is what the Lord says:
Heaven is my throne,
and earth is my footstool.
Where could you possibly build a house for me?
And where would my resting place be?
2My hand made all these things,
and so they all came into being.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will look favorably on this kind of person:
one who is humble, submissive in spirit,
and trembles at my word.
3One person slaughters an ox, another kills a person;
one person sacrifices a lamb, another breaks a dog’s neck;
one person offers a grain offering, another offers pig’s blood;
one person offers incense, another praises an idol —
all these have chosen their ways
and delight in their abhorrent practices.
4So I will choose their punishment,
and I will bring on them what they dread
because I called and no one answered;
I spoke and they did not listen;
they did what was evil in my sight
and chose what I did not delight in.
5You who tremble at his word,
hear the word of the Lord:
“Your brothers who hate and exclude you
for my name’s sake have said,
‘Let the Lord be glorified
so that we can see your joy!’
But they will be put to shame.”
6A sound of uproar from the city!
A voice from the temple —
the voice of the Lord,
paying back his enemies what they deserve!
7Before Zion was in labor, she gave birth;
before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.
8Who has heard of such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Can a land be born in one day
or a nation be delivered in an instant?
Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,
she gave birth to her sons.
9“Will I bring a baby to the point of birth
and not deliver it?”
says the Lord;
“or will I who deliver, close the womb?”
says your God.
10Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her,
all who love her.
Rejoice greatly with her,
all who mourn over her —
11so that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her comforting breast
and drink deeply and delight yourselves
from her glorious breasts.
12For this is what the Lord says:
I will make peace flow to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a flood;
you will nurse and be carried on her hip
and bounced on her lap.
13As a mother comforts her son,
so I will comfort you,
and you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
14You will see, you will rejoice,
and you will flourish like grass;
then the Lord’s power will be revealed to his servants,
but he will show his wrath against his enemies.
15Look, the Lord will come with fire —
his chariots are like the whirlwind —
to execute his anger with fury
and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16For the Lord will execute judgment
on all humanity with his fiery sword,
and many will be slain by the Lord.
17“Those who dedicate and purify themselves to enter the groves following their leader, eating meat from pigs, vermin, and rats, will perish together.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
18“Knowing their works and their thoughts, I have come to gather all nations and languages; they will come and see my glory. 19I will establish a sign among them, and I will send survivors from them to the nations — to Tarshish, Put, Lud (who are archers), Tubal, Javan, and the coasts and islands far away — who have not heard about me or seen my glory. And they will proclaim my glory among the nations. 20They will bring all your brothers from all the nations as a gift to the Lord on horses and chariots, in litters, and on mules and camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the Israelites bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. 21I will also take some of them as priests and Levites,” says the Lord.
22“For just as the new heavens and the new earth,
which I will make,
will remain before me” —
this is the Lord’s declaration —
“so your offspring and your name will remain.
23All humanity will come to worship me
from one New Moon to another
and from one Sabbath to another,”
says the Lord.
24“As they leave, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all humanity.”