You did not listen to Me
1The Lord says:
‘When I sit on my throne in heaven,
I put my feet on the earth.
Do you think that you can build
a house for Me to live in?
2I made everything with my hands.
All things are here because I made them.’
This is what the Lord says:
‘People who can not help themselves
are important to Me. They know
that they are not important,
and they tremble when I speak.
3You sacrifice bulls to Me,
but you also kill people.
You sacrifice lambs to Me,
but you also sacrifice dogs to idols.
You bring grain-offerings to Me,
but you also sacrifice the blood
of pigs to the idols.
You sacrifice incense to Me
and you praise Me,
but you also worship_idols.
You have decided to do
what you want to do
and you love doing what is wrong.
4I have also decided something.
I decided to punish you and
to make you suffer badly.
I will do this because I called you,
but you did not answer Me.
You did not listen to Me
when I talked to you.
You did things that I hate.’
Jerusalem will be like a mother to you
5You who tremble when God talks,
you must listen to what the Lord says:
‘Some of your people hate you
and they don't want to know you
because you serve Me.
They say: “The Lord must show us
that He is God so that we can see
why you are so happy.”
But the people who say this will be sorry.’
6Listen to the loud_noise
coming from the city and the temple.
It is the Lord who is punishing
his enemies for the bad things
that they have done.
7Do you think a woman can
have a baby before she has any pain? No.
8Has anyone heard or seen something
like that happen? Never.
A land and a nation can not be born
and begin to live in only one day.
But Zion will be like a mother who
has her babies before she feels any pain.
9The Lord your God says:
‘All children come from Me.
It is I who decide
that a woman will have a child.
10You who love Jerusalem,
all of you who cry and mourn for the city,
you must rejoice and be happy,
11because Jerusalem is like a woman
who lets her children drink milk
from her breasts and makes them feel safe.
She will let them drink
until they have had enough
because she has a lot of milk.’
12Yes, the Lord says:
‘I will come and give them peace.
I will give all the expensive and beautiful
things of the nations to Jerusalem.
It will come to the city
like a river that flows strongly.
Jerusalem will be to you like a mother
who lets her children drink
and lets them sit on her lap.
13I will comfort you and make you feel safe
like a child who feels safe with his mother.
You will be safe in Jerusalem.
14You will see it happen to you
and you will rejoice.
You will get new life like green grass.’
Everyone will see
that the Lord is with his servants
but He will be angry with his enemies.
The Lord will punish his enemies
15Look, the Lord is coming.
He will come and
bring his war-chariots with Him.
He will come with fire and storm winds.
He is angry and He will punish
his enemies and they will burn.
16The Lord will come with fire
to punish all the people.
He will kill them with his sword
and He will cause a lot of people to die.
17The Lord says: ‘People will die,
all those who purify themselves
to go into the gardens to bring offerings
to idols and eat the meat of pigs,
lizards and rats.
18I know what they do
and what they think.
I will come and call all the nations
to come together.
They will come and
they will know that I am God.’
Your descendants and your name will always be with Me
19The Lord says: ‘I will give you a sign and I will send some of you who are left over to the nations far from here and to those who have not yet heard about Me, the nations that do not know that I am God. They will tell the people of the lands of Tarshish and Pul that I am God. They will also tell it to the people of Lud who are good at shooting bows_and_arrows, and also to the people of Tubal and Greece. 20They will bring your families and other Israelites from all the nations. They will come on horses, war-chariots, wagons, mules and camels. They will come to my holy_mountain, to Jerusalem. They will be a gift to Me, like the grain-offering that the Israelites bring to the temple in a clean bowl. 21I will choose some of those people to be my priests and Levites.’ This is what the Lord says.
22The Lord also says: ‘Your descendants and your name will always be with Me, like the new heaven and new earth that I am going to make. 23All people will come to worship Me on every New-moon-feast and every Sabbath day. 24When they leave the city, they will see the dead bodies of the people who rebelled_against Me. The worms will keep on eating the dead bodies and the fire will keep on burning them. Everyone who sees them will tremble and be afraid.’
