4
What can I do for you, now that I am a widow and left completely alone? Go, my children, and ask the Lord for mercy.'
5
"Father Ezra, I call on you to testify against these people as their mother has done, because they have refused to keep my covenant.
6
Now bring confusion on them and ruin on their mother, so that they will have no descendants.
7
They will be scattered among the nations, and no one on earth will remember them any longer, for they have despised my covenant.
8
"How terrible will be your punishment, Assyria. You have let wicked people hide within your borders. Remember, sinful nation, what I did to Sodom and Gomorrah.
1
9
Their land now lies covered with lumps of tar and heaps of ashes. That is what I do to people who do not obey me.
10
"The Lord says to Ezra: Announce to my new people that I will give them the kingdom of Jerusalem, which I had planned to give to Israel.
11
I will take the dazzling light of my presence away from Israel and will give to my new people the eternal Temple that I had prepared for Israel.
12
The tree of life will fill the air around them with its fragrance. They will never have to work; they will never grow tired.
2
13
Ask, and you will receive. Pray that the number of the days you have to wait will be reduced. Even now the kingdom has been prepared for you, so stay alert.
3
14
Call heaven and earth to witness that I, the living God, have abolished evil and created good.