A man with a measuring line

^1[a]Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. ² I asked, ‘Where are you going?’

He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.’

³ While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him ⁴ and said to him: ‘Run, tell that young man, “Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. ⁵ And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”

⁶ ‘Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,’ declares the Lord.

⁷ ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!’ ⁸ For this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you – for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye – ⁹ I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them.^[b] Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.

¹⁰ ‘Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the Lord. ¹¹ ‘Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. ¹² The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. ¹³ Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.’