Better Days Ahead for Jerusalem

1In the future the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all;

it will be more prominent than other hills.

People will stream to it.

2Many nations will come, saying,

“Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain,

to the temple of Jacob’s God,

so he can teach us his commands

and we can live by his laws.”

For Zion will be the source of instruction;

the Lord’s teachings will proceed from Jerusalem.

3He will arbitrate between many peoples

and settle disputes between many distant nations.

They will beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nations will not use weapons against other nations,

and they will no longer train for war.

4Each will sit under his own grapevine

or under his own fig tree without any fear.

The Lord who commands armies has decreed it.

5Though all the nations follow their respective gods,

we will follow the Lord our God forever.

Restoration Will Follow Crisis

6“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will gather the lame,

and assemble the outcasts whom I injured.

7I will transform the lame into the nucleus of a new nation,

and those far off into a mighty nation.

The Lord will reign over them on Mount Zion,

from that day forward and forevermore.”

8As for you, watchtower for the flock,

fortress of Daughter Zion –

your former dominion will be restored,

the sovereignty that belongs to Daughter Jerusalem.

9Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly?

Has your king disappeared?

Has your wise leader been destroyed?

Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor?

10Twist and strain, Daughter Zion, as if you were in labor!

For you will leave the city

and live in the open field.

You will go to Babylon,

but there you will be rescued.

There the Lord will deliver you

from the power of your enemies.

11Many nations have now assembled against you.

They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated,

so we can gloat over Zion!”

12But they do not know what the Lord is planning;

they do not understand his strategy.

He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed at the threshing floor.

13“Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!

For I will give you iron horns;

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.”

You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler of the whole earth.