"Hear this, you elders! Listen, all of you residents of the land! Has there ever been anything like this during your lifetime, or even when your ancestors were alive?

"Grieve like a virgin, who, dressed in her mourner's clothes, cries out in memory of the man she was going to marry.

Gather the people! Dedicate the congregation! Bring in the elders. Gather the youngsters and even the nursing infants. Call the bridegroom from his wedding preparations, and the bride from her dressing room.

"And truly you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no foreigners will invade her again.