This is what the Lord, your Defender, the Holy One of Israel, says: I am the Lord your God. I teach you what is best for you. I lead you where you should go.
I knelt, bowing down to the Lord. I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham. The Lord led me in the right direction to get the daughter of my master’s relative for his son.
then hear ⌞them⌟ in heaven. Forgive the sins of your servants, your people Israel. Teach them the proper way to live. Then send rain on the land, which you gave to your people as an inheritance.
Then many people will come and say, “Let’s go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may live by them.” The teachings will go out from Zion. The Lord’s word will go out from Jerusalem.
To whom will they make the message understood? To whom will they explain this message? To children just weaned from milk? To those just taken from their ⌞mother’s⌟ breasts?
This is what the Lord, your Defender, the Holy One of Israel, says: For your sake I will send ⌞an army⌟ to Babylon. I will bring back all the Babylonian refugees in the ships that they take pride in.
The Lord is the Holy One and the maker of Israel. This is what the Lord says: Ask me about what is going to happen to my children! Are you going to give me orders concerning my handiwork?
Leave Babylon; flee from the Babylonians! Shout for joy as you tell it and announce it. Shout it out to the ends of the earth. Say that the Lord has reclaimed his servant Jacob.
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they will become drunk on their own blood as though it were new wine. Then all humanity will know that I am the Lord, who saves you, the Mighty One of Jacob, who reclaims you.
The Lord is the defender of Israel, its Holy One. This is what the Lord says to the despised one, to the one scorned by the nation, to the slave of rulers: Kings will see ⌞you⌟ and stand. Princes will see ⌞you⌟ and bow. The Lord is faithful. The Holy One of Israel has chosen you.
This is what the Lord says: Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask which paths are the old, reliable paths. Ask which way leads to blessings. Live that way, and find a resting place for yourselves. But you said that you wouldn’t live that way.
Then many nations will come and say, “Let’s go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may live by them.” The teachings will go out from Zion. The Lord’s word will go out from Jerusalem.
However, stay about half a mile behind them. Don’t come any closer to them so that you will know which way to go because you have not gone this way before.”