Micah 4:6-13

New International Reader's Version

The Lord’s Plan

⁶“The time is coming
    when I will gather those who are disabled,”
    announces the Lord.
“I will bring together those
    who were taken away as prisoners.
    I will gather those I have allowed to suffer.
⁷I will make the disabled my faithful people.
    I will make into a strong nation those driven away from their homes.
I will rule over them on Mount Zion.
    I will be their King from that time on and forever.
⁸Jerusalem, you used to be
    like a guard tower for my flock.
City of Zion, you used to be
    a place of safety for my people.
The glorious kingdom you had before
    will be given back to you.
    Once again a king will rule over your people.”

⁹Why are you crying out so loudly now?
    Don’t you have a king?
Has your ruler died?
    Is that why pain comes on you
    like the pain of a woman having a baby?
¹⁰People of Zion, groan with pain.
    Cry out like a woman having a baby.
Soon you must leave your city.
    You must camp in the open fields.
You will have to go to the land of Babylon.
    But that’s where the Lord will save you.
There he will set you free
    from the power of your enemies.

¹¹But now many nations
    have gathered together to attack you.
They say, “Let Jerusalem be made ‘unclean.’
    We want to laugh when Zion suffers!”
¹²But those nations don’t know
    what the Lord has in mind.
They don’t understand his plan.
    He has planned to gather them up like bundles of grain.
    He has planned to take them to his threshing floor.

¹³The Lord says,

“People of Zion, get up
    and crush your enemies.
    I will make you like a threshing ox.
I will give you iron horns and bronze hooves.
    So you will crush many nations.”

They got their money in the wrong way.
But you will set it apart to the Lord.
You will give their wealth
to the Lord of the whole earth.

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