19. (a) How do the “devastated places of Jerusalem” become cheerful? (b) In what sense has Jehovah “bared his holy arm”?

¹⁹ With God’s people shouting in joy, even the place in which they dwell looks cheerful. The prophecy continues: “Become cheerful, cry out joyfully in unison, you devastated places of Jerusalem, for Jehovah has comforted his people; he has repurchased Jerusalem.

Isaiah 52:9,

With the arrival of the returnees from Babylon, the mournful-looking places of desolated Jerusalem have a cheerful appearance because Jehovah’s pure worship can now be restored. (Isaiah 35:1, 2)

Since 1919, these have been brought into a spiritual paradise, the spiritual estate that they now share with millions of their associates, the other sheep.