1. Mobilize! Marshal your troops!The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem.They will strike Israel’s leaderin the face with a rod.
2. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,are only a small village among all the people of Judah.Yet a ruler of Israel,whose origins are in the distant past,will come from you on my behalf.
3. The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemiesuntil the woman in labor gives birth.Then at last his fellow countrymenwill return from exile to their own land.