1Jerusalem, take off the clothes you have worn in your mourning and distress, and put on the eternal splendour of God's glory. 2Put round you the cloak of God's righteousness. Place on your head the crown of the glory of the Eternal God. 3God will show your splendour to every nation on earth. 4For ever he will say to you: “Your security comes from your righteousness, and your splendour from your devotion to me.”
5Get up, Jerusalem, stand on the mountaintop; see where God, the Holy One, is bringing your children together from the east and from the west. They are rejoicing that God has remembered them. 6Jerusalem, your children were led away by their enemies; they left you on foot, but God is bringing them back to you, carried in royal splendour. 7God has commanded that every high mountain and the everlasting hills shall be made low; he has commanded that the valleys shall be filled and the ground levelled, so that the people of Israel may come safely home in the glory of God. 8At the command of God, forests of fragrant trees will spring up to provide shade for the people of Israel. 9God will lead Israel home. They will return with great joy, guided by his mercy and righteousness, surrounded by the light of his glorious presence.
1The LORD Almighty answers, “I will send my messenger to prepare the way for me. Then the Lord you are looking for will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger you long to see will come and proclaim my covenant.”
2But who will be able to endure the day when he comes? Who will be able to survive when he appears? He will be like strong soap, like a fire that refines metal. 3He will come to judge like one who refines and purifies silver. As a metalworker refines silver and gold, so the LORD's messenger will purify the priests, so that they will bring to the LORD the right kind of offerings. 4Then the offerings which the people of Judah and Jerusalem bring to the LORD will be pleasing to him, as they used to be in the past.
