11  Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”

And he said:

“Until cities lie waste

without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

and the land is a desolate waste,

12  and the Lord removes people far away,

and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

13  And though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned¹ again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump remains

when it is felled.”

The holy seed² is its stump.

1  ^fComfort, comfort my people, says your God.

2  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that her warfare¹ is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.