“Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings ¹  are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Beware! An army ¹  is coming from a land in the north. A mighty nation is stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.

The Lord who rules over all ¹  says, ‘Disaster will soon come on one nation after another. ²  A mighty storm of military destruction ³  is rising up from the distant parts of the earth.’

Then I will reply, ¹  ‘I will bring them back from the land of the north. I will gather them in from the distant parts of the earth. Blind and lame people will come with them, so will pregnant women and women about to give birth. A vast throng of people will come back here.