“But now, for a short time, the Lord our God has been kind to us. He has let some of us come back from captivity and has let us live in safety in his holy place. And so our God gives us hope and a little relief from our slavery.
Even the poorest of my people will be able to eat safely, and people in need will be able to lie down in safety. But I will kill your family with hunger, and all your people who are left will die.
Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant? That person may walk in the dark and have no light. Then let him trust in the Lord and yet depend on his God.
One-tenth of the people will be left in the land, but it will be destroyed again. These people will be like an oak tree whose stump is left when the tree is chopped down. The people who remain will be like a stump that will sprout again.”
The Lord says, “At that time people will try to find Israel’s guilt, but there will be no guilt. People will try to find Judah’s sins, but no sins will be found, because I will leave a few people alive from Israel and Judah, and I will forgive their sins.
They will destroy the Assyrians with their swords; they will conquer the land of Assyria with their swords drawn. They will rescue us from the Assyrians when they come into our land, when they walk over our borders.
So I fed the flock about to be killed, particularly the weakest ones. Then I took two sticks; I called one Pleasant and the other Union, and I fed the flock.
The blind can see, the crippled can walk, and people with skin diseases are healed. The deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor.
And Isaiah says, “A new king will come from the family of Jesse. He will come to rule over the non-Jewish people, and they will have hope because of him.”
Listen, my dear brothers and sisters! God chose the poor in the world to be rich with faith and to receive the kingdom God promised to those who love him.