Once again I will build you up, and you will be rebuilt, my dear people Israel. Once again you will take your tambourines, and you will go dancing with happy people.
This is the message that the Lord speaks to him, ‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you. My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.
The Lord will have compassion for Jacob and again choose Israel. He will resettle them in their own country. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
This is the message that the Lord speaks to him, ‘My dear people in Zion despise you and laugh at you. My people in Jerusalem shake their heads behind your back.
“Say this to them: ‘My eyes flow with tears day and night without stopping because my dear people will suffer massive destruction. It will be a very serious blow.’ ”
I will watch over them for their own good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them.
Then young women will rejoice and dance along with young men and old men. I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them. I will give them joy in place of their sorrow.
The Lord has treated all the warriors inside my ⌞walls⌟ with contempt. He called an army to defeat my young men. The Lord trampled the people of Judah in a winepress.
“What example can I give you? What parallel can I show you, people of Jerusalem? What comparison can I make that will comfort you, beloved people of Zion? Your wounds are as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?
On that day I will set up David’s fallen tent. I will repair the holes in it. I will restore its ruined places. I will rebuild them as they were a long time ago.
When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, he saw his daughter coming out to meet him. She was dancing with tambourines in her hands. She was his only child. Jephthah had no other sons or daughters.