The LORD's Judgments and Zion's Future Hope

661 God's Message: "Heaven's my throne, earth is my footstool. What sort of house could you build for me? What holiday spot reserve for me? 2 I made all this! I own all this!" God's Decree. "But there is something I'm looking for: a person simple and plain, reverently responsive to what I say. 3 "Your acts of worship are acts of sin: Your sacrificial slaughter of the ox is no different from murdering the neighbor; Your offerings for worship, no different from dumping pig's blood on the altar; Your presentation of memorial gifts, no different from honoring a no-god idol. You choose self-serving worship, you delight in self-centered worship - disgusting! 4 Well, I choose to expose your nonsense and let you realize your worst fears, Because when I invited you, you ignored me; when I spoke to you, you brushed me off. You did the very things I exposed as evil, you chose what I hate."

5 But listen to what God has to say to you who reverently respond to his Word: "Your own families hate you and turn you out because of me. They taunt you, 'Let us see God's glory! If God's so great, why aren't you happy?' But they're the ones who are going to end up shamed." 6 Rumbles of thunder from the city! A voice out of the Temple! God's voice, handing out judgment to his enemies: 7 "Before she went into labor, she had the baby. Before the birth pangs hit, she delivered a son. 8 Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Has anyone seen anything like this? A country born in a day? A nation born in a flash? But Zion was barely in labor when she had her babies! 9 Do I open the womb and not deliver the baby? Do I, the One who delivers babies, shut the womb? 10 "Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her, celebrate! And all you who have shed tears over her, join in the happy singing. 11 You newborns can satisfy yourselves at her nurturing breasts. Yes, delight yourselves and drink your fill at her ample bosom." 12 God's Message: "I'll pour robust well-being into her like a river, the glory of nations like a river in flood. You'll nurse at her breasts, nestle in her bosom, and be bounced on her knees. 13 As a mother comforts her child, so I'll comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem." 14 You'll see all this and burst with joy - you'll feel ten feet tall - As it becomes apparent that God is on your side and against his enemies.

15 For God arrives like wildfire and his chariots like a tornado, A furious outburst of anger, a rebuke fierce and fiery. 16 For it's by fire that God brings judgment, a death sentence on the human race. Many, oh so many, are under God's sentence of death: 17 "All who enter the sacred groves for initiation in those unholy rituals that climaxed in that foul and obscene meal of pigs and mice will eat together and then die together." God's Decree. 18 "I know everything they've ever done or thought. I'm going to come and then gather everyone - all nations, all languages. They'll come and see my glory. 19 I'll set up a station at the center. I'll send the survivors of judgment all over the world: Spain and Africa, Turkey and Greece, and the far-off islands that have never heard of me, who know nothing of what I've done nor who I am. I'll send them out as missionaries to preach my glory among the nations. 20 They'll return with all your long-lost brothers and sisters from all over the world. They'll bring them back and offer them in living worship to God. They'll bring them on horses and wagons and carts, on mules and camels, straight to my holy mountain Jerusalem," says God. "They'll present them just as Israelites present their offerings in a ceremonial vessel in the Temple of God. 21 I'll even take some of them and make them priests and Levites," says God. 22 "For just as the new heavens and new earth that I am making will stand firm before me" - God's Decree - "So will your children and your reputation stand firm. 23 Month after month and week by week, everyone will come to worship me," God says. 24 "And then they'll go out and look at what happened to those who rebelled against me. Corpses! Maggots endlessly eating away on them, an endless supply of fuel for fires. Everyone who sees what's happened and smells the stench retches."

The LORD's Judgment on Judah and Jerusalem

31 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, is emptying Jerusalem and Judah Of all the basic necessities, plain bread and water to begin with. 2 He's withdrawing police and protection, judges and courts, pastors and teachers, 3 captains and generals, doctors and nurses, and, yes, even the repairmen and jacks-of-all-trades. 4 He says, "I'll put little kids in charge of the city. Schoolboys and schoolgirls will order everyone around. 5 People will be at each other's throats, stabbing one another in the back: Neighbor against neighbor, young against old, the no-account against the well-respected. 6 One brother will grab another and say, 'You look like you've got a head on your shoulders. Do something! Get us out of this mess.' 7 And he'll say, 'Me? Not me! I don't have a clue. Don't put me in charge of anything.' 8 "Jerusalem's on its last legs. Judah is soon down for the count. Everything people say and do is at cross-purposes with God, a slap in my face.

9 Brazen in their depravity, they flout their sins like degenerate Sodom. Doom to their eternal souls! They've made their bed; now they'll sleep in it. 10 "Reassure the righteous that their good living will pay off. 11 But doom to the wicked! Disaster! Everything they did will be done to them. 12 "Skinny kids terrorize my people. Silly girls bully them around. My dear people! Your leaders are taking you down a blind alley. They're sending you off on a wild goose chase." A City Brought to Her Knees by Her Sorrows 13 God enters the courtroom. He takes his place at the bench to judge his people. 14 God calls for order in the court, hauls the leaders of his people into the dock: "You've played havoc with this country. Your houses are stuffed with what you've stolen from the poor. 15 What is this anyway? Stomping on my people, grinding the faces of the poor into the dirt?" That's what the Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, says.

Judgment on the Daughters of Zion

16 God says, "Zion women are stuck-up, prancing around in their high heels, Making eyes at all the men in the street, swinging their hips, Tossing their hair, gaudy and garish in cheap jewelry." 17 The Master will fix it so those Zion women will all turn bald - Scabby, bald-headed women. The Master will do it. 18 The time is coming when the Master will strip them of their fancy baubles - 19 the dangling earrings, anklets and bracelets, 20 combs and mirrors and silk scarves, diamond brooches and pearl necklaces, 21 the rings on their fingers and the rings on their toes, 22 the latest fashions in hats, exotic perfumes and aphrodisiacs, gowns and capes, 23 all the world's finest in fabrics and design. 24 Instead of wearing seductive scents, these women are going to smell like rotting cabbages; Instead of modeling flowing gowns, they'll be sporting rags; Instead of their stylish hairdos, scruffy heads; Instead of beauty marks, scabs and scars. 25 Your finest fighting men will be killed, your soldiers left dead on the battlefield. 26 The entrance gate to Zion will be clotted with people mourning their dead - A city stooped under the weight of her loss, brought to her knees by her sorrows.