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10 People in Zion, you will have a lot of pain,
like a woman who is giving birth to a baby.
She rolls about and she screams with pain.
Soon you will have to leave your city and you will have to live in the fields.
You will have to go to Babylon,
but there the Lord will save you.
He will make you free again from the authority of your enemies.
11 But now, at this time, many countries have come together to attack your city.
They say: ‘We will destroy Jerusalem and we will enjoy ourselves.
We want to see Zion's people in trouble.’
12 But they do not know the Lord's thoughts.
They do not understand how he will punish them.
He will bring them together,
as people bring bundles of wheat together at harvest time.[a]
He will punish them,
as people thresh wheat to get the seeds out.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 4:12 A bundle is many things that people have tied together (like wheat plants).
  2. 4:12 Wheat is a kind of plant that people grow on farms. They use the seeds to make flour for bread. To thresh means to hit wheat on the ground to get the seeds out.