⁹ Why do you now cry aloud—
    have you no king^[a](A)?
Has your ruler^[b] perished,
    that pain seizes you like that of a woman in labor?^(B)

¹⁰ Writhe in agony, Daughter Zion,
    like a woman in labor,
for now you must leave the city
    to camp in the open field.
You will go to Babylon;^(A)
    there you will be rescued.
There the Lord will redeem^(B) you
    out of the hand of your enemies.

¹¹ But now many nations
    are gathered against you.
They say, “Let her be defiled,
    let our eyes gloat^(C) over Zion!”
¹² But they do not know
    the thoughts of the Lord;
they do not understand his plan,^(D)
    that he has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
¹³ “Rise and thresh,^(E) Daughter Zion,
    for I will give you horns of iron;
I will give you hooves of bronze,
    and you will break to pieces many nations.”^(F)
You will devote their ill-gotten gains to the Lord,^(G)
    their wealth to the Lord of all the earth.

² “But you, Bethlehem^(B) Ephrathah,^(C)
    though you are small among the clans^[b] of Judah,
out of you will come for me
    one who will be ruler^(D) over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,^(E)
    from ancient times.”^(F)

³ Therefore Israel will be abandoned^(G)
    until the time when she who is in labor bears a son,
and the rest of his brothers return
    to join the Israelites.