12Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message,
trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,
13this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,
a bulge in a high wall,
whose collapse will come suddenly—
in an instant!
14It will break in pieces like a potterʼs jar,
shattered so that no fragment can be found.
Not a shard will be found in the dust
large enough to scoop the coals from a hearth
or to skim the water from a cistern.”
15For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said:
“By repentance and rest
you would be saved;
your strength would lie in quiet confidence—
but you were not willing.”
16“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”
Therefore you will flee!
“We will ride swift horses,”
but your pursuers will be faster.
17A thousand will flee at the threat of one;
at the threat of five you will all flee,
until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,
like a banner on a hill.
God Will Be Gracious
18Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore He rises to show you compassion,
for the Lord is a just God.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.
19O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you. 20The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him.
21And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” 22So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
23Then He will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. 24The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
25And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the Lord binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.
27Behold, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense smoke.
His lips are full of fury,
and His tongue is like a consuming fire.
28His breath is like a rushing torrent
that rises to the neck.
He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;
He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.