39
But wait here yet another seven days so that you may be shown whatever it pleases the Most High to show you."
40
Then he left me. When the whole people heard that seven days had passed and I hadn't returned to the city, they all gathered, from the smallest to the biggest. They came and said to me,
41
"How have we sinned against you? What wrong did we do to you that you abandon us and sit in this place?
42
You are the only one of all the prophets left to us, like a cluster of grapes from the vineyard, and like a lamp in a dark place, and like a harbor for a ship saved from a storm.
43
Or are the disasters that have befallen us not enough for us?
44
If you abandon us now, it would have been better for us to have been burned up along with Zion!
45
We are no better than those who died there." They wept with a loud voice.
46
I answered them: "Have confidence, Israel! Don't be sad, house of Jacob.
47
The Most High keeps you in memory. The mighty one hasn't forgotten you in your struggle.
48
I haven't abandoned you, nor have I gone away from you. I came to this place to pray because of Zion's desolation, in order to seek mercy for the humiliation of your sanctuary.
49
Now go home, each of you, and I will come to you in a few days."