3. For a nation will attack her from the northand bring such destruction that no one will live there again.Everything will be gone;both people and animals will flee.
4. “In those coming days,”says the lord,“the people of Israel will return hometogether with the people of Judah.They will come weepingand seeking the lord their God.
5. They will ask the way to Jerusalemand will start back home again.They will bind themselves to the lordwith an eternal covenant that will never be forgotten.
6. “My people have been lost sheep.Their shepherds have led them astrayand turned them loose in the mountains.They have lost their wayand can’t remember how to get back to the sheepfold.
7. All who found them devoured them.Their enemies said,‘We did nothing wrong in attacking them,for they sinned against the lord,their true place of rest,and the hope of their ancestors.’
8. “But now, flee from Babylon!Leave the land of the Babylonians.Like male goats at the head of the flock,lead my people home again.