[4:6] “The time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will gather together the people I punished, those who have suffered in exile.
[4:7] They are crippled and far from home, but I will make a new beginning with those who are left, and they will become a great nation. I will rule over them on Mount Zion from that time on and forever.”
[4:8] 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.
[4:9] Why do you cry out so loudly? Why are you suffering like a woman in labor? Is it because you have no king, and your counselors are dead?
[4:10] Twist and groan, people of Jerusalem, like a woman giving birth, for now you will have to leave the city and live in the open country. You will have to go to Babylon, but there the Lord will save you from your enemies.
[4:11] Many nations have gathered to attack you. They say, “Jerusalem must be destroyed! We will see this city in ruins!”
[4:12] But these nations do not know what is in the Lord's mind. They do not realize that they have been gathered together to be punished in the same way that grain is brought in to be threshed.
[4:13] The Lord says, “People of Jerusalem, go and punish your enemies! I will make you as strong as a bull with iron horns and bronze hoofs. You will crush many nations, and the wealth they got by violence you will present to me, the Lord of the whole world.”
[5:1] People of Jerusalem, gather your forces! We are besieged! They are attacking the leader of Israel!