Study Desk

A day of the Lord is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence.

I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle.^(a) The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.

Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations as He fights on a day of battle.^(b)

On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,^(c) which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley, so that half the mountain will move to the north and half to the south.

You will flee by My mountain valley,^[a] for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled^[b] from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.^(d) Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with Him.^[c](e)

On that day there will be no light; the sunlight and moonlight^[d] will diminish.^[e](f)

It will be a day known only to Yahweh,^(g) without day or night, but there will be light at evening.

On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem,^(h) half of it toward the eastern sea^[f] and the other half toward the western sea,^[g] in summer and winter alike.

On that day Yahweh will become King over all the earth⁽ⁱ⁾—Yahweh alone, and His name alone.^(j)

All the land from Geba^(k) to Rimmon^(l) south of Jerusalem will be changed into a plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain^[h] on its site from the Benjamin Gate^(m) to the place of the First Gate,^[i] to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.⁽ⁿ⁾

People will live there, and never again will there be a curse of complete destruction. So Jerusalem will dwell in security.

This will be the plague the Lord strikes all the peoples with, who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

On that day a great panic from the Lord will be among them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of one will rise against the other.

Judah will also fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected: gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.^(o)

The same plague as the previous one will strike^[j] the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the animals that are in those camps.

Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths.^(p)

Should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, rain will not fall on them.

And if the people^[k] of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the Lord inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

On that day, the words HOLY TO THE LORD will be on the bells of the horses.^(q) The pots in the house of the Lord will be like the sprinkling basins before the altar.

Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Hosts. Everyone who sacrifices will come and take some of the pots to cook in. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite^[l] in the house of the Lord of Hosts.