6–7  “On that great day,” God says,

“I will round up all the hurt and homeless,

everyone I have bruised or banished.

I will transform the battered into a company of the elite.

I will make a strong nation out of the long lost,

A showcase exhibit of God’s rule in action,

as I rule from Mount Zion, from here to eternity.

8  “And you stragglers around Jerusalem,

eking out a living in shantytowns:

The glory that once was will be again.

Jerusalem’s daughter will be the kingdom center.”

9–10  So why the doomsday hysterics?

You still have a king, don’t you?

But maybe he’s not doing his job

and you’re panicked like a woman in labor.

Well, go ahead—twist and scream, Daughter Jerusalem.

You are like a woman in childbirth.

You’ll soon be out of the city, on your way

and camping in the open country.

And then you’ll arrive in Babylon.

What you lost in Jerusalem will be found in Babylon.

God will give you new life again.

He’ll redeem you from your enemies.

11–12  But for right now, they’re ganged up against you,

many godless peoples, saying,

“Kick her when she’s down! Violate her!

We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt.”

These blasphemers have no idea

what God is thinking and doing in this.

They don’t know that this is the making of God’s people,

that they are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.

13  On your feet, Daughter of Zion! Be threshed of chaff,

be refined of dross.

I’m remaking you into a people invincible,

into God’s juggernaut to crush the godless peoples.

You’ll bring their plunder as holy offerings to God,

their wealth to the Master of the earth.