צִיּוֹן Zion

Return, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am a lord unto you, and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion;

Set up a standard toward Zion; put yourselves under covert, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, The anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, The voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath, That spreadeth her hands: ‘Woe is me, now! for my soul fainteth Before the murderers.’

The comely and delicate one, The daughter of Zion, will I cut off.

They lay hold on bow and spear, They are cruel, and have no compassion; Their voice is like the roaring sea, And they ride upon horses; Set in array, as a man for war, Against thee, O daughter of Zion.

Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far off: ‘Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?’— ‘Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, and with strange vanities?’—

For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion: ‘How are we undone! We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.’

Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath Thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast Thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; And for a time of healing, and behold terror!

’Micah the Morashtite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Zion shall be plowed as a field, And Jerusalem shall become heaps, And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

For I will restore health unto thee, And I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; Because they have called thee an outcast: ‘She is Zion, there is none that careth for her.’

For there shall be a day, That the watchmen shall call upon the mount Ephraim: Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, Unto the LORD our God.’

And they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, And shall flow unto the goodness of the LORD, To the corn, and to the wine, and to the oil, And to the young of the flock and of the herd; And their soul shall be as a watered garden, And they shall not pine any more at all.

They shall inquire concerning Zion With their faces hitherward: ‘Come ye, and join yourselves to the LORD In an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.’

Hark! they flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, To declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, The vengeance of His temple.

The LORD hath brought forth our victory; Come, and let us declare in Zion The work of the LORD our God.

And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea All their evil that they have done in Zion, in your sight; Saith the LORD.

’The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon’, Shall the inhabitant of Zion say; And: ‘My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea’, Shall Jerusalem say.

Blow ye the horn in Zion, And sound an alarm in My holy mountain; Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; For the day of the LORD cometh, For it is at hand;

Blow the horn in Zion, Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly;

Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God; For He giveth you the former rain in just measure, And He causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, at the first.

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, As the LORD hath said, And among the remnant those whom the LORD shall call.

And the LORD shall roar from Zion, And utter His voice from Jerusalem, And the heavens and the earth shall shake; But the LORD will be a refuge unto His people, And a stronghold to the children of Israel.

So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God, Dwelling in Zion My holy mountain; Then shall Jerusalem be holy, And there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

And I will hold as innocent their blood that I have not held as innocent; And the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

And he said: The LORD roareth from Zion, And uttereth His voice from Jerusalem; and the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, And to them that are secure in the mountain of Samaria, The notable men of the first of the nations, To whom the house of Israel come!

But in mount Zion there shall be those that escape, And it shall be holy; And the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

And saviours shall come up on mount Zion To judge the mount of Esau; And the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Bind the chariots to the swift steeds, O inhabitant of Lachish; She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel are found in thee.

That build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.

And many nations shall go and say: ‘Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, And to the house of the God of Jacob; And He will teach us of His ways, And we will walk in His paths’; For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

And I will make her that halted a remnant, And her that was cast far off a mighty nation; And the LORD shall reign over them in mount Zion from thenceforth even for ever.

And thou, Migdal-eder, the hill of the daughter of Zion, Unto thee shall it come; Yea, the former dominion shall come, The kingdom of the daughter of Jerusalem.

Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, Like a woman in travail; For now shalt thou go forth out of the city, And shalt dwell in the field, And shalt come even unto Babylon; There shalt thou be rescued; There shall the LORD redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

And now many nations are assembled against thee, That say: ‘Let her be defiled, and let our eye gaze upon Zion.’

Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; For I will make thy horn iron, And I will make thy hoofs brass; And thou shalt beat in pieces many peoples; And thou shalt devote their gain unto the LORD, And their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.

Sing, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O Israel; Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: ‘Fear thou not; O Zion, let not thy hands be slack.

so the angel that spoke with me said unto me: ‘Proclaim thou, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy;

Again, proclaim, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.’

Ho, Zion, escape, thou that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.’

’Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.

’Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury.

Thus saith the LORD: I return unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts The holy mountain.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; Behold, thy king cometh unto thee, He is triumphant, and victorious, Lowly, and riding upon an ass, Even upon a colt the foal of an ass.

For I bend Judah for Me, I fill the bow with Ephraim; And I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, Against thy sons, O Javan, And will make thee as the sword of a mighty man.

'Truly it is I that have established My king upon Zion, My holy mountain.'

Sing praises to the LORD, who dwelleth in Zion; Declare among the peoples His doings.

That I may tell of all Thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion, That I may rejoice in Thy salvation.