Therefore, the sovereign Lord who commands armies, the powerful ruler of Israel, says this: “Ah, I will seek vengeance against my adversaries, I will take revenge against my enemies.

As a mother consoles a child, so I will console you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

“I will provoke civil strife in Egypt, brothers will fight with each other, as will neighbors, cities, and kingdoms.

Owls will make nests and lay eggs there; they will hatch them and protect them. Yes, hawks will gather there, each with its mate.

Don’t listen to Hezekiah!’ For this is what the king of Assyria says, ‘Send me a token of your submission and surrender to me. Then each of you may eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,

You will drink the milk of nations; you will nurse at the breasts of kings. Then you will recognize that I, the Lord, am your deliverer, your protector, the powerful ruler of Jacob.

The cities of Aroer are abandoned. They will be used for herds, which will lie down there in peace.

For tyrants will disappear, those who taunt will vanish, and all those who love to do wrong will be eliminated –

Those who live uprightly enter a place of peace; they rest on their beds.

Why are your clothes red? Why do you look like someone who has stomped on grapes in a vat?

Look, ambassadors cry out in the streets; messengers sent to make peace weep bitterly.

Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, but I blessed him and gave him numerous descendants.

“As for those who consecrate and ritually purify themselves so they can follow their leader and worship in the sacred orchards, those who eat the flesh of pigs and other disgusting creatures, like mice – they will all be destroyed together,” says the Lord.

At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the typical life span of a king. At the end of seventy years Tyre will try to attract attention again, like the prostitute in the popular song:

I will sing to my love – a song to my lover about his vineyard. My love had a vineyard on a fertile hill.

None tire or stumble, they don’t stop to nap or sleep. They don’t loosen their belts, or unstrap their sandals to rest.

How will they respond to the messengers of this nation? Indeed, the Lord has made Zion secure; the oppressed among his people will find safety in her.

But the horde of invaders will be like fine dust, the horde of tyrants like chaff that is blown away. It will happen suddenly, in a flash.

Remember what I accomplished in antiquity! Truly I am God, I have no peer; I am God, and there is none like me,

All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him.