removed into exile and whose territory was populated by Gentiles. 9:3–6 The joy the people will experience in the future will be like that of the harvest[time] or the time of dividing the plunder after a successful military campaign. How is this dramatic turnaround possible? Only God, of course, can bring such joy out of sorrow, but Isaiah explains how he does so by the threefold repetition of For at the beginning of verses 4, 5, and 6 (the NIV omits the word in its translation of verse 5). The answer