Zion

Your holy cities have become a desert, Tziyon a desert, Yerushalayim a ruin.

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.

"Return, backsliding children," says ADONAI; "for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and bring you to Tziyon.

Set up a signal toward Tziyon, head for cover without delay. For I will bring disaster from the north, yes, dire destruction.

For I have heard a sound like a woman in labor, in anguish giving birth to her first child. It is the sound of the daughter of Tziyon gasping for breath as she spreads her hands: "Woe to me! Everything in me is so weary before the killers."

Although she is beautiful and delicate, I am cutting off the daughter of Tziyon."

They will take hold of bow and spear; they are cruel; they have no compassion: their noise as they ride on horses is like the roaring sea; and they are equipped for battle against you, daughter of Tziyon.

Listen to my people's cry of distress out of a distant land: "Is ADONAI no longer in Tziyon? Is her king no longer there?" "Why do they provoke me with their idols and their futile foreign gods?"

For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon: 'We are utterly ruined, we are completely ashamed, because we have left the land, and our homes have been torn down!'"

Have you rejected Y'hudah completely? Is Tziyon loathsome to you? Why have you struck us irreparably? We looked for peace, but to no avail; for a time of healing, but instead found terror!

"Back in the time of Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah, Mikhah from Moreshet was a prophet. He told all the people of Y'hudah, 'ADONAI-Tzva'ot says, "Tziyon will be plowed under like a field, Yerushalayim will become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house like a forested height."'

For I will restore your health, I will heal you of your wounds," says ADONAI, "because they called you an outcast, Tziyon, with no one who cares about her."

For a day will come when the watchmen on Mount Efrayim will call, 'Come, let's go up to Tziyon, to ADONAI our God.'"

They will come and sing on the heights of Tziyon, streaming to the goodness of Adonai, to the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and the young of the flock and the herd. They themselves will be like a well-watered garden, never to languish again.

They will ask the way to Tziyon; and, turning their faces toward it, will say, 'Come, join yourselves to ADONAI by an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten.'

Hear the sound of the fugitives, of those escaping from Bavel, coming to proclaim in Tziyon the vengeance of ADONAI our God, vengeance over his temple.

ADONAI has brought forth our victory. Come, let us proclaim in Tziyon the work of ADONAI our God!

"But I will repay Bavel and all living in the land of the Kasdim for all the evil they did in Tziyon," says ADONAI, "before your eyes [, Y'hudah]."

But one who lives in Tziyon will say, "May my torn flesh be avenged on Bavel"; and Yerushalayim will say, "May my blood be avenged on the Kasdim."

The roads to Tziyon are mourning because no one comes to the festivals. Her gateways are all deserted, her cohanim are groaning, her unmarried girls are grieving -how bitter it is for her!

All splendor has departed from the daughter of Tziyon. Her princes have become like deer unable to find pasture, running on, exhausted, fleeing from the hunter.

Tziyon spreads out her hands, but no one is there to console her. Concerning Ya'akov, ADONAI has ordered those around him to be his foes; Yerushalayim has become for them an unclean, filthy thing.

How enveloped in darkness Adonai, in his anger, has made the daughter of Tziyon! He has thrown down from heaven to earth the splendor of Isra'el, forgotten his footstool [the sanctuary] on the day of his anger.

He bent his bow like an enemy, with his right hand set like a foe. He killed all who were pleasant to see. In the tent of the daughter of Tziyon, he poured out his fury like fire.

He wrecked his tabernacle as easily as a garden, destroyed his place of assembly. ADONAI caused Isra'el to forget designated times and Shabbats. In the heat of his anger he rejected both king and cohen.