“Look, I am about to do something new. Now it begins to happen! ¹  Do you not recognize ²  it? Yes, I will make a road in the desert and paths ³  in the wilderness.

Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I summoned! I am the one; I am present at the very beginning and at the very end. ¹ 

You must ¹  actively help the hungry and feed the oppressed. ²  Then your light will dispel the darkness, ³  and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. ⁴ 

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; ¹  they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

“Do I bring a baby to the birth opening and then not deliver it?” asks the Lord. “Or do I bring a baby to the point of delivery and then hold it back?” asks your God. ¹ 

Know for certain that ¹  I hereby give you the authority to announce to nations and kingdoms that they will be ²  uprooted and torn down, destroyed and demolished, rebuilt and firmly planted.” ³ 

“My, how good you have become at chasing after your lovers! ¹  Why, you could even teach prostitutes a thing or two! ² 

The Lord said to me, ¹  “Tell them, ‘The Lord says, Do people not get back up when they fall down? Do they not turn around when they go the wrong way? ² 

The Lord says, “Do not start following pagan religious practices. ¹  Do not be in awe of signs that occur ²  in the sky even though the nations hold them in awe.

Then those living in the towns of Judah and in Jerusalem will ¹  go and cry out for help to the gods to whom they have been sacrificing. However, those gods will by no means ²  be able to save them when disaster strikes them.

But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian ¹  change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots? ² 

The Lord said, ¹  “So I will now let this wicked people know – I will let them know my mighty power in judgment. Then they will know that my name is the Lord.” ² 

But I will punish you as your deeds deserve,’ says the Lord. ¹  ‘I will set fire to your palace; it will burn up everything around it.’” ² 

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not paid any attention to them.

I will rebuild you, my dear children Israel, ¹  so that you will once again be built up. Once again you will take up the tambourine and join in the happy throng of dancers. ² 

So all these Judeans returned to the land of Judah from the places where they had been scattered. They came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. Thus they harvested a large amount of wine and dates and figs. ¹ 

They will ask the way to Zion; they will turn their faces toward it. They will come ¹  and bind themselves to the Lord in a lasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ² 

and say, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

When a righteous person turns back from his righteousness and practices wrongdoing, he will die for it; ¹  because of the wrongdoing he has done, he will die.

When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life.