11  Then I said, ^h“How long, O Lord?”

And he said:

“Until ⁱcities 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  ^jAnd though a tenth remain in it,

it will be burned¹ again,

like a terebinth or an oak,

whose stump ^kremains

when it is felled.”

^lThe holy seed² is its stump.

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

2  ^aSpeak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and cry to her

that ^bher warfare¹ is ended,

that her iniquity is pardoned,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.