Shake yourself free, Jerusalem! Rise from the dust and sit on your throne! Undo the chains that bind you, captive people of Zion!

Yes, the time is coming when sentries will call out on the hills of Ephraim, 'Let's go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.' "

The LORD says, "When that time comes, the people of both Israel and Judah will come weeping, looking for me, their God.

They will ask the way to Zion and then go in that direction. They will make an eternal covenant with me and never break it.

(Refugees escape from Babylonia and come to Jerusalem, and they tell how the LORD our God took revenge for what the Babylonians had done to his Temple.)

The LORD says, "My people shout, 'The LORD has shown that we are in the right. Let's go and tell the people in Jerusalem what the LORD our God has done.' "

And you, Jerusalem, where God, like a shepherd from his lookout tower, watches over his people, will once again be the capital of the kingdom that was yours.

The LORD is good; he protects his people in times of trouble; he takes care of those who turn to him.

There are these two things, then, that cannot change and about which God cannot lie. So we who have found safety with him are greatly encouraged to hold firmly to the hope placed before us.

No one in the world of the dead can praise you; The dead cannot trust in your faithfulness.

I will say to the prisoners, 'Go free!' and to those who are in darkness, 'Come out to the light!' They will be like sheep that graze on the hills;

There is hope for your future; your children will come back home. I, the LORD, have spoken.

Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing:

The LORD's unfailing love and mercy still continue,

God said to me, "Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future.

I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt.

Then, after Job had prayed for his three friends, the LORD made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had had before.

Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins."

Your shame and disgrace are ended. You will live in your own land, And your wealth will be doubled; Your joy will last forever.