Good news for people who suffer
1The Spirit of the Lord God is in me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He sent me to bring good news
to people who suffer,
to comfort people who cry and mourn,
and to tell the prisoners who are tied
that they are free, and they may go out.
2I must tell everyone that the time has come
when the Lord will be good to us.
Our God will punish his enemies
but He will be good to everyone
who is crying and mourning.
3He will change everything
for the people of Zion who are mourning.
There is ashes on your heads,
but you will have flowers on your heads.
You are crying now, but you will rejoice
and put olive oil on your bodies.
You are very sad now, but you will sing
and put on clothes for a feast.
Other people will say that you,
the people of Zion, are like righteous trees.
The Lord has planted them
to glorify his name.
4You will build your cities again,
the cities that are only heaps of stones.
You will build the places
that were destroyed long ago
and were broken for many years.
5People from other lands
will come and work for you.
They will look after your sheep and goats
and work in your fields and vineyards.
6You will be the priests of the Lord,
people who work for our God.
All the expensive and beautiful things
of other nations will belong to you,
and you will enjoy them and eat good food.
7Other people have humiliated you,
and said you were worthless,
but you will have twice as much
as you had before,
and people will say you are very important.
You will have twice as much in your land
as other people and you will always be happy.
8The Lord says: ‘I, the Lord,
love what is right,
and I hate people who steal things
from other people and
who don't do to them what is right.
I will give my people everything
that I have promised them.
I will make a covenant with them,
a covenant that will be forever.
9The other nations will know
the descendants of my people.
Everyone who sees them will know
that God has blessed them.’
10The Lord makes me very happy.
My God makes me rejoice.
He saved me and said I may belong to Him again.
He gave me clothes to put on for a feast.
I am like a bridegroom that has
a crown on my head like a priest.
I am like a bride who has put on all her jewels.
11There are new trees growing in the ground,
and there are new plants growing in a garden.
That is how the Lord
will make everything grow that is righteous.
Yes, He will do these things and
all the nations will know it and praise Him.
