18Therefore the LORD [p]longs to be gracious to you,

And therefore He [q]waits on high to have compassion on you.

For the LORD is a God of justice;

How blessed are all those who [r]long for Him.

19[s]For, you people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will certainly be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. 20Although the Lord has given you bread of deprivation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher, will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will see your Teacher. 21Your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. 22And you will desecrate your carved images plated with silver, and your cast metal images plated with gold. You will scatter them as a filthy thing, and say to [t]them, “Be gone!”

23Then He will give you rain for your seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be [u]rich and [v]plentiful; on that day your livestock will graze in a wide pasture. 24Also the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat [w]seasoned feed, which [x]has been winnowed with shovel and pitchfork. 25And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be [y]streams running with water on the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26And the light of the full moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the wound [z]He has inflicted.

27Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a [aa]remote place;

His anger is burning and [ab]dense with [ac]smoke;

His lips are filled with indignation,

And His tongue is like a consuming fire;

28His breath is like an overflowing river,

Which reaches to the neck,

To shake the nations back and forth in a [ad]sieve,

And to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads astray.

29You will have [ae]songs as in the night when you keep the festival,

And gladness of heart as when one marches to the sound of the flute,

To go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel.

30And the LORD will cause [af]His voice of authority to be heard,

And the [ag]descending of His arm to be seen in fierce anger,

And in the flame of a consuming fire

In cloudburst, downpour, and hailstones.

31For at the voice of the LORD Assyria will be terrified,

When He strikes with the rod.

32And every [ah]blow of the [ai]rod of punishment,

Which the LORD will lay on him,

Will be with the music of tambourines and lyres;

And in battles, brandishing weapons, He will fight them.

33For [aj]Topheth has long been ready,

Indeed, it has been prepared for the king.

He has made it deep and large,

[ak]A pyre of fire with plenty of wood;

The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of brimstone, sets it afire.