Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had awakened, to go up to build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.
Then said I to them, You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no longer a reproach.
For there those who took us away captive required of us a song; and those who oppressed us required of us cheerfulness, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a command, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
For your waste and your desolate places, and the land of your destruction, shall even now be too narrow because of the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away.
And forget the LORD your maker, who has stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
Lift up your eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you: your sons shall come from afar, and your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
And there shall be no more a piercing brier to the house of Israel, nor any painful thorn among all who are round about them, who despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.