Your children hurry back, while those who destroyed and devastated you depart.

Leave Babylon! Flee from the Babylonians! Announce it with a shout of joy! Make this known! Proclaim it throughout the earth! ¹  Say, ‘The Lord protects ²  his servant Jacob.

Leave! Leave! Get out of there! Don’t touch anything unclean! Get out of it! Stay pure, you who carry the Lord’s holy items! ¹ 

A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s ¹  root stock, a bud will sprout ²  from his roots.

I know where you live and everything you do and how you rage against me. ¹ 

Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, those who are deaf, even though they have ears!

This also comes from the Lord who commands armies, who gives supernatural guidance and imparts great wisdom. ¹ 

“For a remnant will leave Jerusalem; survivors will come out of Mount Zion. The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies ¹  will accomplish this.

‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

A crushed reed he will not break, a dim wick he will not extinguish; ¹  he will faithfully make just decrees. ² 

to open blind eyes, ¹  to release prisoners ²  from dungeons, those who live in darkness from prisons.

the one who led chariots and horses to destruction, ¹  together with a mighty army. They fell down, ²  never to rise again; they were extinguished, put out like a burning wick:

“I announced events beforehand, ¹  I issued the decrees and made the predictions; ²  suddenly I acted and they came to pass.

You will say ¹  to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in dark dungeons, ²  ‘Emerge.’ ³  They will graze beside the roads; on all the slopes they will find pasture.

I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah people to take possession of my mountains. My chosen ones will take possession of the land; ¹  my servants will live there.

Indeed the stars in the sky and their constellations no longer give out their light; ¹  the sun is darkened as soon as it rises, and the moon does not shine. ² 

Don’t be so happy, all you Philistines, just because the club that beat you has been broken! ¹  For a viper will grow out of the serpent’s root, and its fruit will be a darting adder. ² 

You will desecrate your silver-plated idols ¹  and your gold-plated images. ²  You will throw them away as if they were a menstrual rag, saying to them, “Get out!”

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went out to meet him.

The king ¹  heard that King Tirhakah of Ethiopia ²  was marching out to fight him. ³  He again sent ⁴  messengers to Hezekiah, ordering them: