“People of Israel, fix the road signs. Put up signs to show you the way home. Watch the road. Pay attention to the road on which you travel. People of Israel, come home, come back to your towns.
I have already given this for the Temple, but now I am also giving my own treasures of gold and silver, because I really want the Temple of my God to be built.
There were people from all the tribes of Israel who wanted to obey the Lord, the God of Israel. So they went to Jerusalem with the Levites to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
Jehoshaphat was afraid, so he decided to ask the Lord what to do. He announced that everyone in Judah should fast during this special time of prayer to God.
My people, leave Babylon! Run from the Babylonians! Tell this news with shouts of joy to the people; spread it everywhere on earth. Say, “The Lord has saved his servants, the people of Jacob.”
Go through, go through the gates! Make the way ready for the people. Build up, build up the road! Move all the stones off the road. Raise the banner as a sign for the people.
Go and speak this message toward the north: ‘Come back, unfaithful people of Israel,’ says the Lord. ‘I will stop being angry at you, because I am full of mercy,’ says the Lord. ‘I will not be angry with you forever.
“Come back to me, you unfaithful children,” says the Lord, “because I am your master. I will take one person from every city and two from every family group, and I will bring you to Jerusalem.
Those people will ask how to go to Jerusalem and will start in that direction. They will come and join themselves to the Lord. They will make an agreement with him that will last forever, an agreement that will never be forgotten.
“Run away from Babylon and save your lives! Don’t stay and be killed because of Babylon’s sins. It is time for the Lord to punish Babylon; he will give Babylon the punishment she deserves.
This is what the Lord says: “Stand where the roads cross and look. Ask where the old way is, where the good way is, and walk on it. If you do, you will find rest for yourselves. But they have said, ‘We will not walk on the good way.’
The man said to me, “Human, look with your eyes and hear with your ears. Pay attention to all that I will show you, because that’s why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel all that you see.”
he said to them: “Pay careful attention to all the words I have said to you today, and command your children to obey carefully everything in these teachings.