I will attack him while he is tired and discouraged. He will be frightened, and all his men will run away. I will kill only the king

Then the people who had been living in the land tried to discourage and frighten the Jews and keep them from building.

They were trying to frighten us into stopping work. I prayed, "But now, God, make me strong!"

Everyone's hands will hang limp, and everyone's courage will fail.

Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness.

"We have heard the news," say the people of Jerusalem, "and our hands hang limp; we are seized by anguish and pain like a woman in labor.

The king of Babylonia hears the news, and his hands hang limp. He is seized by anguish, by pain like a woman in labor.

The time is coming when they will say to Jerusalem, "Do not be afraid, city of Zion! Do not let your hands hang limp!

and asked, "Where is the baby born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star when it came up in the east, and we have come to worship him."

When King Herod heard about this, he was very upset, and so was everyone else in Jerusalem.