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Encouragement for Israel

⁵ Take courage, my people,
   who perpetuate Israel’s name!
⁶ It was not for destruction
   that you were sold to the nations,
but you were handed over to your enemies
   because you angered God.
⁷ For you provoked the one who made you
   by sacrificing to demons and not to God.
⁸ You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up,
   and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you.
⁹ For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God,
   and she said:
Listen, you neighbours of Zion,
   God has brought great sorrow upon me;
¹⁰ for I have seen the exile of my sons and daughters,
   which the Everlasting brought upon them.
¹¹ With joy I nurtured them,
   but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow.
¹² Let no one rejoice over me, a widow
   and bereaved of many;
I was left desolate because of the sins of my children,
   because they turned away from the law of God.
²⁷ Take courage, my children, and cry to God,
   for you will be remembered by the one who brought this upon you.
²⁸ For just as you were disposed to go astray from God,
   return with tenfold zeal to seek him.
²⁹ For the one who brought these calamities upon you
   will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.