Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.
It shall happen, after that I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
*How can I give you up, Efrayim? How can I hand you over, Yisra'el? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Tzevoyim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.
Therefore thus says the LORD: *I have returned to Yerushalayim with mercy. My house shall be built in it,* says the LORD of Armies, *and a line shall be stretched forth over Yerushalayim.*'
For the LORD will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that [their] power is gone, There is none [remaining], shut up or left at large.