Your descendants would have been as numerous as sand, ¹  and your children ²  like its granules. Their name would not have been cut off and eliminated from my presence. ³ 

Now they come into being, ¹  not in the past; before today you did not hear about them, so you could not say, ‘Yes, ²  I know about them.’

Your sun will no longer set; your moon will not disappear; ¹  the Lord will be your permanent source of light; your time ²  of sorrow will be over.

Does a farmer just keep on plowing at planting time? ¹  Does he keep breaking up and harrowing his ground?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is an eternal God, the creator of the whole earth. ¹  He does not get tired or weary; there is no limit to his wisdom. ² 

“They will go out and observe the corpses of those who rebelled against me, for the maggots that eat them will not die, ¹  and the fire that consumes them will not die out. ²  All people will find the sight abhorrent.” ³ 

Look up at the sky! Look at the earth below! For the sky will dissipate ¹  like smoke, and the earth will wear out like clothes; its residents will die like gnats. But the deliverance I give ²  is permanent; the vindication I provide ³  will not disappear. ⁴ 

He said, “Go and tell these people: ‘Listen continually, but don’t understand! Look continually, but don’t perceive!’

He said, “You will no longer celebrate, oppressed ¹  virgin daughter Sidon! Get up, travel to Cyprus, but you will find no relief there.” ² 

“I thought, ‘I will no longer see the Lord ¹  in the land of the living, I will no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world. ² 

“Shout for joy, O barren one who has not given birth! Give a joyful shout and cry out, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one are more numerous than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord.

At that time ¹  those left in Israel, those who remain of the family ²  of Jacob, will no longer rely on a foreign leader that abuses them. ³  Instead they will truly ⁴  rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ⁵ 

Therefore, this is what the sovereign master, the Lord, says: “Look, I am laying ¹  a stone in Zion, an approved ²  stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. ³  The one who maintains his faith will not panic. ⁴ 

Certainly ¹  caraway seed is not threshed with a sledge, nor is the wheel of a cart rolled over cumin seed. ²  Certainly caraway seed is beaten with a stick, and cumin seed with a flail.

A thoroughfare will be there – it will be called the Way of Holiness. ¹  The unclean will not travel on it; it is reserved for those authorized to use it ²  – fools ³  will not stray into it.

“Fall down! Sit in the dirt, O virgin ¹  daughter Babylon! Sit on the ground, not on a throne, O daughter of the Babylonians! Indeed, ²  you will no longer be called delicate and pampered.

This is what your sovereign master, ¹  the Lord your God, says: “Look, I have removed from your hand the cup of intoxicating wine, ²  the goblet full of my anger. ³  You will no longer have to drink it.

The Lord will continually lead you; he will feed you even in parched regions. ¹  He will give you renewed strength, ²  and you will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring that continually produces water.

For this reason the sovereign master, ¹  the Lord, says: “It will not take place; it will not happen.

Many will stumble over the stone and the rock, ¹  and will fall and be seriously injured, and will be ensnared and captured.”