Add parallel Print Page Options

10 Keep on groaning with pain,
    you people of Jerusalem!
If you escape from your city
    to the countryside,
you will still be taken
    as prisoners to Babylonia.
But later I will rescue you
    from your enemies.

11 Zion, because of your sins
you are surrounded
    by many nations who say,
“We can hardly wait
    to see you disgraced.”[a]
12 But they don't know
    that I, the Lord,
have gathered them here
    to grind them like grain.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 4.11 We … disgraced: Or “We'll pull up your skirt and expose your nakedness!”

10 Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
    like a woman in labor,
for now you must leave the city
    to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;(A)
    there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem(B) you
    out of the hand of your enemies.

11 But now many nations
    are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
    let our eyes gloat(C) over Zion!”
12 But they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,(D)
    that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

Read full chapter