¹She is the scroll containing God’s commandments,

the Law that exists forever.

All who hold on to her will live,

but those who desert her will die.

²Jacob, turn and grab on to her.

Travel toward the rays

coming from her light.

³Don’t give your honor to another

or your advantages to a foreign nation.

⁴Israel, we are blessed

because we know

what is pleasing to God.

Poem of encouragement

⁵Be confident, my people,

you who are the legacy of Israel!

⁶You weren’t sold to the nations

for complete destruction,

but you were handed over

to your opponents

because you made God angry.

⁷You upset your creator

when you sacrificed to demons

and not to God.

⁸You forgot the eternal God

who raised you;

and you caused pain to Jerusalem,

who nurtured you.

⁹Jerusalem saw the wrath of God

that came on you and said:

Neighbors of Zion, listen!

God has brought me great grief.

¹⁰I have watched my sons and daughters taken captive,

the action of the eternal one.

¹¹I nursed them joyfully,

but I sent them away

with tears and mourning.

¹²Don’t any of you rejoice over me,

a widow deserted by many.

My children avoided God’s Law,

so I was stripped bare

because of their sins.

¹³They didn’t acknowledge

God’s requirements,

walk in the ways of

God’s commandments,

or follow the paths in which

his righteousness trained them.

¹⁴Neighbors of Zion, come!

Remember the exile

my sons and daughters suffered,

brought on them by the eternal one.

¹⁵God brought a nation

from far away against them,

a nation that is shameless

and speaks a strange language,

that showed no respect for the elderly or pity for the child.

¹⁶It took away the widow’s[#4.16 Or they]

dearly loved sons

and deprived the lonely woman

of her daughters.

¹⁷But how am I able to help you?

¹⁸The one who brought

the horrible things on you

¹⁹Go, children, go,

for I have been left desolate.

²⁰I’ve stripped off the robe of peace and put on the rough cloth of mourners.

I’ll spend my days crying out

to the eternal one.

²¹Children, be confident! Cry out to God!

God will rescue you from your enemies’ authority and grip.

²²I have placed hope in the eternal one

for your salvation;

the holy one has sent me joy,

because your eternal savior

will soon have mercy on you.

²³I sent you away

with mourning and wailing,

but God will restore you to me

with gladness and joy forever.

²⁴Just as Zion’s neighbors

have now seen your exile,

they’ll also soon see

God’s deliverance of you;

it will come to you with all the glory and splendor of the eternal one.

²⁵Children, bear up patiently

under God’s anger,

which has come on you.

Your enemy has hunted you down,

but you’ll soon see their destruction.

Then you’ll step on their throats.

²⁶My delicate children

have traveled rough roads.

They were taken as a flock

snatched away by enemies.

²⁷Children, be confident!

Cry out to God,

for the one who brought this on you will remember you.

²⁸Just as you plotted

to stray away from God,

return with ten times as much effort

to seek him out.

²⁹The one who brought

these horrible things on you

will bring you eternal joy

along with your deliverance.

Comfort for Jerusalem

³⁰Jerusalem, be confident!

The one who named you will comfort you.

³¹Misery will fall upon those

who mistreated you

and celebrated your fall.

³²Misery will fall upon the cities

that enslaved your young.

Misery will fall upon the cities

that received your children.

³³Just as the enemy celebrated your fall[#4.33 Or he]

and rejoiced at your misfortune,

she herself will feel the pain

of being left desolate.

³⁴I’ll strip away the pride

she has in her great population,

and turn her arrogance into grief.

³⁵The eternal one will send fire on her

for many days,

and demons will inhabit her

for a long time.

³⁶Jerusalem, look to the east

and see the joy that is coming

to you from God.

³⁷The children you sent away are coming.

By the holy one’s word,