3 ‘For behold, adays are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will brestore the 1fortunes of My people cIsrael and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also dbring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it.’ ”

4 Now these are the words which the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah:

5 “For thus says the Lord,

‘1I have heard a sound of aterror,

Of dread, and there is no peace.

6 ‘Ask now, and see

If a male can give birth.

Why do I see every man

With his hands on his loins, aas a woman in childbirth?

And why have all faces turned pale?

7 ‘Alas! for that aday is great,

There is bnone like it;

And it is the time of Jacob’s cdistress,

But he will be dsaved from it.

8 ‘It shall come about on that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘that I will abreak his yoke from off 1their neck and will tear off 1their bbonds; and strangers will no longer cmake 2them their slaves.

9 ‘But they shall serve the Lord their God and aDavid their king, whom I will raise up for them.