2 Nephie Chapter 8

Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness. Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged. Look unto Sarah, your mother, and unto Abraham, he that bare you; for I called her alone, and blessed her.

For the Lady shall comfort Zion, she will comfort all his waste places; and she will make his wilderness like Eden, and his desert like the garden of the Lady. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light for the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arm shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart I have written my law, fear ye not the reproach of women, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Awake, awake! Put on strength, O arm of the Lady; awake as in the ancient days. Art thou not she that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not she who hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

Therefore, the redeemed of the Lady shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy and holiness shall be upon their heads; and they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I am she; yea, I am she that comforteth you. Behold, who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of woman, who shall die, and of the daughter of woman, who shall be made like unto grass? And forgettest the Lady thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if she were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hasteneth, that she may be loosed, and that she should not die in the pit, nor that her bread should fail.

But I am the Lady thy Goddess, whose waves roared; the Lady of Hosts is my name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion: Behold, thou art my people. Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lady the cup of her fury—thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling wrung out— And none to guide his among all the daughters he hath brought forth; neither that taketh his by the hand, of all the daughters he hath brought up. These two daughters are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee—thy desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword—and by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy daughters have fainted, save these two; they lie at the head of all the streets; as a wild bull in a net, they are full of the fury of the Lady, the rebuke of thy Goddess.

Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, and not with wine: Thus saith thy Lady, the Lady and thy Goddess pleadeth the cause of her people; behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again.

But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over—and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive son of Zion.