At that time ¹  a root from Jesse ²  will stand like a signal flag for the nations. Nations will look to him for guidance, ³  and his residence will be majestic.

Like a frightened gazelle ¹  or a sheep with no shepherd, each will turn toward home, ²  each will run to his homeland.

No one will live there again; no one will ever reside there again. ¹  No bedouin ²  will camp ³  there, no shepherds will rest their flocks ⁴  there.

The Lord will certainly have compassion on Jacob; ¹  he will again choose Israel as his special people ²  and restore ³  them to their land. Resident foreigners will join them and unite with the family ⁴  of Jacob.

All you who live in the world, who reside on the earth, you will see a signal flag raised on the mountains; you will hear a trumpet being blown.

I will put your robe on him, tie your belt around him, and transfer your authority to him. ¹  He will become a protector of ²  the residents of Jerusalem and of the people ³  of Judah.

Lament, ¹  you residents of the coast, you merchants of Sidon ²  who travel over the sea, whose agents sail over

Is this really your boisterous city ¹  whose origins are in the distant past, ²  and whose feet led her to a distant land to reside?

Let the desert and its cities shout out, the towns where the nomads of Kedar live! Let the residents of Sela shout joyfully; let them shout loudly from the mountaintops.

Yes, your land lies in ruins; it is desolate and devastated. ¹  But now you will be too small to hold your residents, and those who devoured you will be far away.

So now be very sure of this: You will die from war, starvation, or disease in the place where you want to go and live.”

Instead Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led off all the Judean remnant who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. ¹ 

Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns that were around them. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.

“Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire – so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem ¹  as fuel. ² 

The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy; they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and denied them justice. ¹ 

Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

People will reside again ¹  in his shade; they will plant and harvest grain in abundance. ²  They will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.

Indeed, the residents of Maroth ¹  hope for something good to happen, ²  though the Lord has sent disaster against the city of Jerusalem. ³ 

Residents of Lachish, ¹  hitch the horses to the chariots! You ²  influenced Daughter Zion ³  to sin, ⁴  for Israel’s rebellious deeds can be traced back ⁵  to you!

Therefore you ¹  will have to say farewell ²  to Moresheth Gath. The residents ³  of Achzib ⁴  will be as disappointing as a dried up well ⁵  to the kings of Israel. ⁶