2. Lord, be kind to us. We have waited for your help. Give us strength every morning. Save us when we are in trouble.
3. Your powerful voice makes people run away in fear. Your greatness causes the nations to run away.
4. You people stole things in war. Those things will be taken from you. Many will come and take your wealth. It will be like the times when locusts come and eat all your crops.
5. The Lord is very great. He lives in a very high place. He fills Zion with justice and goodness.
6. Jerusalem, you are rich with wisdom and knowledge of God. You are rich with salvation. You respect the Lord, and that makes you rich.
7. But listen! The messengers are crying outside. The messengers who bring peace are crying very hard.
8. The roads are empty; there is no one walking along the paths. People don’t respect each other. They have broken the agreements they made, and they refuse to believe what witnesses tell them.
9. The land is sick and dying. Lebanon is dying and Sharon Valley is dry and empty. Bashan and Carmel once grew beautiful plants—but now those plants have stopped growing.
18-19. When you think about the troubles you had in the past, you will wonder, “Where are those foreigners who spoke languages we could not understand. Where are the officials and tax collectors from other lands? Where are the spies who counted our defense towers?”
20. Look at Zion, the city of our religious festivals. Look at Jerusalem—that beautiful place of rest. Jerusalem is like a tent that will never be moved. The pegs that hold her in place will never be pulled up. Her ropes will never be broken,
21-23. because the Lord is our powerful leader there. That land is a place with streams and wide rivers, but there will be no enemy boats or powerful ships on those rivers. You men who work on such boats can stop your work with the ropes. You cannot make the mast strong enough. You will not be able to open your sails, because the Lord is our judge. He makes our laws. He is our king. He saves us. The Lord will give us our wealth. Even crippled people will get their share.
24. No one living there will say, “I am sick,” because everyone living there has had their guilt removed.