Xa-cha-ri 14

A day of the LORD is coming

¹Look, a day of the LORD is coming, when the plunder taken from you will be shared out within your walls. ²I will gather all the nations to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, its houses looted and its women raped. Half of the city will go off into exile, but those who remain will not be cut off from the city. ³Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on the day of battle. ⁴On that day his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will split in two from east to west, opening a very wide valley, as half of the mountain moves north and the other half south. ⁵You will flee through the valley of my mountains, for the valley between the mountains will reach as far as Azal. You will run as you ran from the earthquake during the reign of Uzziah king of Judah. And the LORD my God will come; all the holy ones will be with you.^{ab 6}On that day there will be no light; the shining lights will grow dim.^{c 7}It will be a day like no other, a day known to the LORD, without day or night; and when evening comes, there will be light. ⁸On that day living water will flow out of Jerusalem, half of it to the eastern sea and half of it to the western sea. It will flow in summer and in winter alike. ⁹The LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day the LORD will be one, and his name one. ¹⁰The whole land will become like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem will stand high and remain on its own site, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel as far as the royal winepresses. ¹¹People will live in it, and it will never again be devoted to destruction. Jerusalem will live in safety. ¹²This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who made war on Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets; their tongues will rot in their mouths. ¹³On that day a great panic from the LORD will fall on them. They will seize one another by the hand, and each will raise a hand against the other. ¹⁴Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. Riches from all the nations round about will be collected: gold, silver and clothing in great quantity.^{d 15}A plague like this one will also strike the horses, mules, camels and donkeys, and all the animals that are in those camps. ¹⁶Then all who survive from all the nations that attacked Jerusalem will go up every year to worship the King, the LORD of Armies, and to keep the Festival of Booths. ¹⁷If any of the families of the earth fail to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Armies, no rain will fall on them. ¹⁸If the people of Egypt do not go up and come, they will have no rain either; the plague will come on them with which the LORD strikes the nations that do not go up to keep the Festival of Booths.^{e 19}This will be the punishment for Egypt, and the punishment for all the nations that do not go up to keep the Festival of Booths. ²⁰On that day the bells of the horses will bear the words “Holy to the LORD”, and in the house of the LORD the cooking pots will be like the bowls in front of the altar. ²¹In Jerusalem and Judah every pot will be holy to the LORD of Armies, and all who offer sacrifices will come and use them to boil their meat. And on that day there will no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of Armies.^f