Your light has come
1‘Jerusalem, you must get up,
and let your light shine
because your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord will shine
on you like a light.
2The earth and its people
are covered with darkness,
but the Lord will shine his light on you,
and He will show you his glory.
3Nations and kings
will come to your light.
They will live in your new day.
4Jerusalem, look around you.
You will see your sons and daughters
come from far away.
People will carry them,
and they will all come together to you.
5When you see it, you will be very happy.
Your heart will beat fast and you will rejoice,
because you will get all the expensive
and beautiful things of the nations.
It will come to you over the sea.
6A lot of camels will come to you,
camels from the lands of Midian and Ephah.
They will all come from the land of Sheba
and they will bring gold and incense
and the people will praise the Lord.
7All the sheep and goats
from the land of Kedar will belong to you,
and also the rams of the land of Nebaioth.
I want you to sacrifice them on my altar.
I will be proud of my beautiful temple.
8Who are those people
coming to you like a cloud?
Who are the people that come
like doves that fly to their nests?
9Jerusalem, they are your sons
who come from far away.
They come from lands far away near the sea.
They come with boats and
they bring gold and silver with them.
They come to honour the Lord your God,
the holy God of Israel,
and He will also honour you.
10People from other lands
will build new walls around you
and their kings will work for you,
because I punished you
when I was angry,
but I want to be good to you again.
11Your gates will be open every day
and night so that the expensive
and beautiful things of the nations
can come to you and the people
can lead their kings to you.
12The nations that do not serve you will be destroyed.
The enemies will destroy their lands,
and their cities will become heaps of stones.
13The wood of the best trees
on Mount Lebanon will come to you,
fir trees, cypress trees and pine trees.
You will use it to make my temple beautiful.
14The people who oppressed you
and said you are worthless
will come to you and they
will bow down in front of you.
They will say:
“You are the city of the Lord.
Zion belongs to the holy God of Israel.”
15There was no one who lived in you,
and no one wanted to walk through you.
But now everyone will be proud of you,
and each new generation will rejoice over you.
16Nations and kings will take care of you
like a mother who takes care of her child.
And you will know that
I am the Lord who saves you.
The strong God_of_Jacob is your Saviour.
17Jerusalem, you have bronze,
but I will bring you gold,
you have iron, but I will bring you silver,
you have wood, but I will bring you bronze,
you have rock, but I will bring you iron.
I will give you peace
and your people will do
what is right to each other.
18There will never again
be cruel people doing bad things
in your land. They will never again
destroy your houses and things.
You will say the names of your walls are:
“The Lord Saves”
and the names of your gates will be:
“Praise The Lord.”
19In day time the sun
will no longer be your light
and the moon will not shine on you
because the Lord will be your light forever.
Your God will always be your light.
20Your sun will not go down
and your moon will not become smaller
because the Lord will always be your light.
The time has gone when
you were crying and mourning.
21Your people will all do
what the Lord wants and
the land will belong to them forever.
They will be like a tree
that the Lord has planted,
a tree that He has planted Himself
to glorify his name.
22Only a few of your people
will be like 1 000 people.
Your weakest people will be
like a strong nation.
I will make that happen when I decide to do it.
I am the Lord.’
