5. But listen to what God has to sayto you who reverently respond to his Word:“Your own families hate youand turn you out because of me.They taunt you, ‘Let us see God’s glory!If God’s so great, why aren’t you happy?’But they’re the oneswho are going to end up shamed.”
6. Rumbles of thunder from the city!A voice out of the Temple!God’s voice,handing out judgment to his enemies:
18-21. “I know everything they’ve ever done or thought. I’m going to come and then gather everyone—all nations, all languages. They’ll come and see my glory. I’ll set up a station at the center. I’ll send the survivors of judgment all over the world: Spain and Africa, Turkey and Greece, and the far-off islands that have never heard of me, who know nothing of what I’ve done nor who I am. I’ll send them out as missionaries to preach my glory among the nations. They’ll return with all your long-lost brothers and sisters from all over the world. They’ll bring them back and offer them in living worship to God. They’ll bring them on horses and wagons and carts, on mules and camels, straight to my holy mountain Jerusalem,” says God. “They’ll present them just as Israelites present their offerings in a ceremonial vessel in the Temple of God. I’ll even take some of them and make them priests and Levites,” says God.
22-23. “For just as the new heavens and new earththat I am making will stand firm before me”—God’s Decree—“So will your childrenand your reputation stand firm.Month after month and week by week,everyone will come to worship me,” God says.
24. “And then they’ll go out and look at what happenedto those who rebelled against me. Corpses!Maggots endlessly eating away on them,an endless supply of fuel for fires.Everyone who sees what’s happenedand smells the stench retches.”