Shout for joy, Daughter Zion! Shout out, Israel! Be happy and boast with all your heart, Daughter Jerusalem!

On that day they will say to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion! Your hands must not be paralyzed from panic!

“I will attack Judah and all who live in Jerusalem. I will remove from this place every trace of Baal worship, as well as the very memory of the pagan priests.

At that time I will search through Jerusalem with lamps. I will punish the people who are entrenched in their sin, those who think to themselves, ‘The Lord neither rewards nor punishes.’

The filthy, stained city is as good as dead; the city filled with oppressors is finished!

“As for those who grieve because they cannot attend the festivals – I took them away from you; they became tribute and were a source of shame to you.

On that day,” says the Lord, “a loud cry will go up from the Fish Gate, wailing from the city’s newer district, and a loud crash from the hills.

I thought, ‘Certainly you will respect me! Now you will accept correction!’ If she had done so, her home would not be destroyed by all the punishments I have threatened. But they eagerly sinned in everything they did.