6. Sound of tumult from the city! Sound from the temple! Sound of Jehovah, who repays His enemies with punishment.
7. Before she travailed she brought forth; before pains came upon her, she was delivered of a boy. 8. Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen anything like it? Are men delivered of a land in one day? Or is a nation begotten at once? For Zion hath travailed, yea, hath brought forth her children. 9. Should I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith Jehovah; or should I, who cause to bring forth, shut up? saith thy God.
10. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and exult over her, all ye that love her; be ye delightfully glad with her, all ye that mourn over her, 11. that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breast of her consolations, that ye may sip and delight yourselves in the abundance of her glory. 12. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I guide peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like an overflowing stream, that ye may suck; ye shall be borne upon arms, and fondled upon knees. 13. Like a man whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. 14. And ye will see, and your heart will be joyful, and your bones will flourish like young herbage; and thus does the hand of Jehovah make itself known to His servants, and fiercely does He treat His enemies. 15. For behold Jehovah, in the fire will He come, and His chariots are like the whirlwind, to pay out His wrath in burning of fire. 16. For in the midst of fire Jehovah holds judgment, and in the midst of His sword with all flesh; and great will be the multitude pierced through by Jehovah. 17. They that consecrate themselves and purify themselves for the gardens behind one in the midst, who eat swine’s flesh and abomination and the field mouse—they all come to an end together, saith Jehovah. 18. And I, their works and their thoughts—it comes to pass that all nations and tongues are gathered together, that they come and see My glory.[3]
19. And I set a sign upon them, and send away those that have escaped from them to the Gentiles, to Tarshish, Phûl and Lûd, to the stretchers of the bow, Tubal and Javan—the distant islands that have not heard My fame and have not seen My glory, and they will proclaim My glory among the Gentiles. 20. And they will bring your brethren out of all heathen nations, a sacrifice for Jehovah, upon horses and upon chariots, and upon litters, and upon mules, and upon dromedaries, to My holy mountain, to Jerusalem, saith Jehovah, as the children of Israel bring the meat-offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. 21. And I will also add some of them to the priests, to the Levites, saith Jehovah. 22. For as the new heaven and the new earth, which I am about to make, continue before Me, saith Jehovah, so will your family and your name continue. 23. And it will come to pass, from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come, to worship before Me, saith Jehovah. 24. And they go out and look at the corpses of the men that have rebelled against Me, for their worm will not die, and their fire will not be quenched, and they become an abomination to all flesh.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] “But to this will I look, even to him that is poor, and contrite in spirit, and trembleth at My word.”—Birks. “Afflicted, and crushed in spirit.”—Cheyne. “Meek and of a contrite spirit.”—Arnold.
[2] “Freaks of fortune.”—Cheyne. “I also will choose to mock them.”—Arnold, Strachey.
[3] “But [I will punish] their works and their thoughts; [behold the time] is come that I gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory.”—Cheyne. Arnold treats the words: “For I know their works and their thoughts,” as the completion of a paragraph, and commences the next paragraph: “It shall come, that I will gather all nations,” &c.
Calkins.[1]
chaps. lii. 13–liii.