Chapter
14:1-21
Watch,
for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be
plundered right in front of you! On that day I will gather all the
nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses
plundered, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken away
into captivity, and half will be left among the ruins of the city.
Then
the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought
in times past. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,
which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will split
apart, making a wide valley running from east to west, for half the
mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. You
will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal. Yes,
you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King
Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones
with him.
On
that day the sources of light will no longer shine, yet there will be
continuous day! Only the Lord knows how this could happen! There will
be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be
light. On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem,
half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing
continuously both in summer and in winter.
And
the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be
one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped. All the land from Geba,
north of Judah, to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become one vast
plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up in its original place and will
be inhabited all the way from the Benjamin Gate over to the site of
the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel
to the king’s winepresses. And Jerusalem will be filled, safe at
last, never again to be cursed and destroyed.
And
the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against
Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh
rotting away. Their eyes will shrivel in their sockets, and their
tongues will decay in their mouths. On that day they will be
terrified, stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will fight
against each other in hand-to-hand combat; Judah, too, will be
fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighboring nations will
be captured—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing.
This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and
all the other animals in the enemy camps.
In
the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to
Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to
celebrate the Festival of Shelters. And any nation anywhere in the
world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord
Almighty, will have no rain. And if the people of Egypt refuse to
attend the festival, the Lord will punish them with the same plague
that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go. Egypt and the
other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the
festival.
On
that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with
these words: SET APART AS HOLY TO THE Lord. And the cooking pots in
the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the
altar. In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be set
apart as holy to the Lord Almighty. All who come to worship will be
free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that
day there will no longer be traders in the Temple of the Lord
Almighty.
