⁷ The Lord proclaims:
Sing joyfully for the people of Jacob;
    shout for the leading nation.
Raise your voices with praise and call out:
    “The Lord has saved his people,^[a]
    the remaining few in Israel!”

⁸ I’m going to bring them back from the north;
    I will gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the disabled,
    expectant mothers and those in labor;
        a great throng will return here.
⁹ With tears of joy they will come;
    while they pray, I will bring them back.
I will lead them by quiet streams
    and on smooth paths so they don’t stumble.
I will be Israel’s father,
    Ephraim will be my oldest child.

¹⁰ Listen to the Lord’s word, you nations,
    and announce it to the distant islands:
The one who scattered Israel will gather them
    and keep them safe, as a shepherd his flock.
¹¹ The Lord will rescue the people of Jacob
    and deliver them from the power of those stronger than they are.
¹² They will come shouting for joy on the hills of Zion,
    jubilant over the Lord’s gifts:
        grain, wine, oil, flocks, and herds.
Their lives will be like a lush garden;
    they will grieve no more.
¹³ Then the young women will dance for joy;
    the young and old men will join in.
I will turn their mourning into laughter
    and their sadness into joy;
        I will comfort them.
¹⁴ I will lavish the priests with abundance
    and shower my people with my gifts,
        declares the Lord.

⁸ “Then the creator of all things
gave me a command;
    the one who created me pitched my tent
    and said, ‘Make your dwelling in Jacob,
    and let Israel receive your inheritance.’
⁹ Before the ages, from the beginning,
he created me,
    and till eternity I will never fail.
¹⁰ I ministered before him in the holy tent,
    and so I was established in Zion.
¹¹ In the same way, he made
the dearly loved city my resting place
    and established my authority
    in Jerusalem.
¹² I took root in a glorified people;
    among the people the Lord chose
    for his inheritance.

¹² Worship the Lord, Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, Zion!
¹³ Because God secures the bars on your gates,
    God blesses the children you have there.
¹⁴ God establishes your borders peacefully.
    God fills you full with the very best wheat.

¹⁵ God issues his command to the earth—
    God’s word speeds off fast!
¹⁶ God spreads snow like it was wool;
    God scatters frost like it was ashes;
¹⁷ God throws his hail down like crumbs—
    who can endure God’s freezing cold?
¹⁸ Then God issues his word and melts it all away!
    God makes his winds blow;
    the water flows again.

¹⁹ God proclaims his word to Jacob;
    his statutes and rules to Israel.
²⁰ God hasn’t done that with any other nation;
    those nations have no knowledge of God’s rules.^[a]

Praise the Lord!