You Israelites! Return to the one against whom you have so blatantly rebelled! ¹ 

But approach, you sons of omen readers, you offspring of adulteresses and prostitutes! ¹ 

Just a handful of archers, the warriors of Kedar, will be left.” ¹  Indeed, ²  the Lord God of Israel has spoken.

I will say to the north, ‘Hand them over!’ and to the south, ‘Don’t hold any back!’ Bring my sons from distant lands, and my daughters from the remote regions of the earth,

Yet the children born during your time of bereavement will say within your hearing, ‘This place is too cramped for us, ¹  make room for us so we can live here.’ ² 

Foreigners will rebuild your walls; their kings will serve you. Even though I struck you down in my anger, I will restore my favor and have compassion on you. ¹ 

They will swoop down ¹  on the Philistine hills to the west; ²  together they will loot the people of the east. They will take over Edom and Moab, ³  and the Ammonites will be their subjects.

Fortified cities will disappear from Ephraim, and Damascus will lose its kingdom. ¹  The survivors in Syria will end up like the splendor of the Israelites,” says the Lord who commands armies.

At that time ¹  their fortified cities will be like the abandoned summits of the Amorites, ²  which they abandoned because of the Israelites; there will be desolation.

At that time ¹  the Lord will shake the tree, ²  from the Euphrates River ³  to the Stream of Egypt. Then you will be gathered up one by one, O Israelites. ⁴ 

This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, ¹  the one who formed him, concerning things to come: ²  “How dare you question me ³  about my children! How dare you tell me what to do with ⁴  the work of my own hands!

“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.

The children of your oppressors will come bowing to you; all who treated you with disrespect will bow down at your feet. They will call you, ‘The City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ ¹ 

The Lord swears an oath by his right hand, by his strong arm: ¹  “I will never again give your grain to your enemies as food, and foreigners will not drink your wine, which you worked hard to produce.

They will bring back all your countrymen ¹  from all the nations as an offering to the Lord. They will bring them ²  on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules, and on camels ³  to my holy hill Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the Israelites bring offerings to the Lord’s temple in ritually pure containers.