3 For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that aI will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. b‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’ ”

4 Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.

5 “For thus says the Lord:

‘We have heard a voice of trembling,

Of 1fear, and not of peace.

6 Ask now, and see,

Whether a 2man is ever in 3labor with child?

So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins

cLike a woman in labor,

And all faces turned pale?

7 dAlas! For that day is great,

eSo that none is like it;

And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,

But he shall be saved out of it.

8 ‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’

Says the Lord of hosts,

‘That I will break his yoke from your neck,

And will burst your bonds;

Foreigners shall no more enslave them.

9 But they shall serve the Lord their God,

And fDavid their king,

Whom I will graise up for them.