Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the whole area surrounding the Jordan was well watered in its entirety (before Adonai destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah)—like Adonai’s garden, like the land of Egypt—till you come to Zoar.
For Adonai will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of Adonai. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and a sound of melody.
No longer will you be termed “Forsaken”, no longer your land termed “Desolate”. Instead you will be called, “My Delight is in Her” and your land, “Married”. For Adonai delights in you, and your land will be married.
Rather, ‘As Adonai lives, who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ So they will dwell in their own soil.
Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Yet again will there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, a pasture of shepherds making their flocks lie down.
“Then this city will be to Me for a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth, which will hear all the good that I do for them, so they will fear and tremble because of all the good and for all the shalom that I do for it.”
You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering —ruby, topaz and diamond, beryl, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and emerald—your settings and your sockets a workmanship of gold —in the day you were created they were prepared.
A fire devours before them and behind them flame blazes up. Like the Garden of Eden is the land before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness. Nothing at all ever escapes them.