and said: Praise the LORD God of Israel! He brought his people out of Egypt long ago and later kept his promise to make my father David the king of Israel. The LORD also promised him that Jerusalem would be the city where his temple will be built, and now that promise has come true.
When the crowd of people saw the fire and the LORD's glory, they knelt down and worshipped the LORD. They prayed: “The LORD is good, and his love never ends.”
Everybody stood up during the ceremony. The priests were in their assigned places, blowing their trumpets. And the Levites faced them, playing the musical instruments that David had made for them to use when they praised the LORD for his never-ending love.
Her people recall the good life that once was theirs; now they suffer and are scattered. No one was there to protect them from their enemies who sneered when their city was taken.
The Lord abandoned his altar and his temple; he let Zion's enemies capture her fortresses. Noisy shouts were heard from the temple, as if it were a time of celebration.
he is ready to destroy the temple in which you take such pride and which makes you feel so safe. Your children who now live in Jerusalem will be killed.
At this, the angel said, “LORD All-Powerful, for seventy years you have been angry with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. When are you ever going to have mercy on them?”
has become a scorching desert of salt and sulphur, where nothing is planted, nothing sprouts, and nothing grows. It will be as lifeless as the land around the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, after the LORD became angry and destroyed them.