Zechariah Cross References - BSB

¹ In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying: ² “The LORD was very angry with your fathers. ³ So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’ ⁴ Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD. ⁵ Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’” ⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. ⁸ I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹ “What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.” ¹⁰ Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” ¹¹ And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.” ¹² Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?” ¹³ So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me. ¹⁴ Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, ¹⁵ but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’ ¹⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’ ¹⁷ Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’” ¹⁸ Then I looked up and saw four horns. ¹⁹ So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ²⁰ Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. ²¹ “What are these coming to do?” I asked. And He replied, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

²⁴ Thus the construction of the house of God in Jerusalem ceased, and it remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

¹⁴ So the Jewish elders built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo. They finished building according to the command of the God of Israel and the decrees of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes, kings of Persia. ¹⁵ And this temple was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.

⁴ Iddo, Ginnethon, Abijah,

¹⁶ of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;

¹ In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, stating

¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

¹⁰ On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Haggai the prophet, saying,

²⁰ For the second time that day, the twenty-fourth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to Haggai, saying,

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.

¹ In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.

³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.

¹⁶ that this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring calamity on this place and on its people, according to all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read, ¹⁷ because they have forsaken Me and burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands. My wrath will be kindled against this place and will not be quenched.’

¹⁹ because your heart was tender and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against its people, that they would become a desolation and a curse, and because you have torn your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you,’ declares the LORD.

²⁶ Nevertheless, the LORD did not turn away from the fury of His burning anger, which was kindled against Judah because of all that Manasseh had done to provoke Him to anger.

¹³ He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. But Zedekiah stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy. ¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, ¹⁸ who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials. ¹⁹ Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value. ²⁰ Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.

⁶ and said: “O my God, I am ashamed and embarrassed to lift up my face to You, my God, because our iniquities are higher than our heads, and our guilt has reached the heavens. ⁷ From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and put to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.

¹³ After all that has come upon us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt (though You, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us such a remnant as this),

²⁶ But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies. ²⁷ So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

¹ For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Lily of the Covenant.” A Miktam of David for instruction. When he fought Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and Joab returned and struck down 12,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. You have rejected us, O God; You have broken us; You have been angry; restore us!

⁵ How long, O LORD? Will You be angry forever? Will Your jealousy burn like fire? ⁶ Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the kingdoms that refuse to call on Your name,

⁶ Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.

¹² Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look around and see! Is there any sorrow like mine, which was inflicted on me, which the LORD made me suffer on the day of His fierce anger? ¹³ He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long. ¹⁴ My transgressions are bound into a yoke, knit together by His hand; they are draped over my neck, and the Lord has broken my strength. He has delivered me into the hands of those I cannot withstand. ¹⁵ The Lord has rejected all the mighty men in my midst; He has summoned an army against me to crush my young warriors. Like grapes in a winepress, the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

³ In fierce anger He has cut off every horn of Israel and withdrawn His right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. ⁴ He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. ⁵ The Lord is like an enemy; He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah.

⁴² “We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.” ⁴³ You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us; You have killed without pity. ⁴⁴ You have covered Yourself with a cloud that no prayer can pass through. ⁴⁵ You have made us scum and refuse among the nations.

⁷ Our fathers sinned and are no more, but we bear their punishment.

³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹¹ All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. ¹² You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

¹ Gather yourselves, gather together, O shameful nation, ² before the decree takes effect and the day passes like chaff, before the burning anger of the LORD comes upon you, before the Day of the LORD’s anger comes upon you. ³ Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth who carry out His justice. Seek righteousness; seek humility. Perhaps you will be sheltered on the day of the LORD’s anger.

³⁰ And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ So you testify against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

³⁰ When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. ³¹ For the LORD your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers, which He swore to them by oath.

² and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, ³ then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. ⁴ Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there. ⁵ And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers. ⁶ The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. ⁷ Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you. ⁸ And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today. ⁹ So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your goodness, as He delighted in that of your fathers, ¹⁰ if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴⁷ and when they come to their senses in the land to which they were taken, and they repent and plead with You in the land of their captors, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong; we have acted wickedly,’ ⁴⁸ and when they return to You with all their heart and soul in the land of the enemies who took them captive, and when they pray to You in the direction of the land that You gave to their fathers, the city You have chosen, and the house I have built for Your Name,

⁴ But in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought Him, and He was found by them.

⁶ So the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria. ⁷ Do not be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that He made them an object of horror, as you can see. ⁸ Now do not stiffen your necks as your fathers did. Submit to the LORD and come to His sanctuary, which He has consecrated forever. Serve the LORD your God, so that His fierce anger will turn away from you. ⁹ For if you return to the LORD, your brothers and sons will receive mercy in the presence of their captors and will return to this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful; He will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.”

²⁸ But as soon as they had rest, they again did evil in Your sight. So You abandoned them to the hands of their enemies, who had dominion over them. When they cried out to You again, You heard from heaven, and You delivered them many times in Your compassion.

⁶ Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel.

⁶ Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. ⁷ Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.

¹² Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever. ¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD. ¹⁴ “Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.

²² “Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.

¹ “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,

¹⁵ But after I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land.

⁵ The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.

¹² Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the LORD my God. ¹⁹ After I returned, I repented; and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief. I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’ ²⁰ Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the LORD.

¹⁵ Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

³⁹ Why should any mortal man complain, in view of his sins? ⁴⁰ Let us examine and test our ways, and turn back to the LORD. ⁴¹ Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

¹¹ Say to them: ‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’

¹ Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

¹ Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

⁴ I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

¹² “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”

¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea. ²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.

⁷ Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’

¹⁸ I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ ²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ²¹ The son declared, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²² But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

⁸ Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹ Grieve, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.

¹⁹ Nevertheless, the LORD sent prophets to bring the people back to Him and to testify against them; but they would not listen. ²⁰ Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He has forsaken you.’” ²¹ But they conspired against Zechariah, and by order of the king, they stoned him in the courtyard of the house of the LORD. ²² Thus King Joash failed to remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him. Instead, Joash killed Jehoiada’s son. As he lay dying, Zechariah said, “May the LORD see this and call you to account.”

⁶ For our fathers were unfaithful and did evil in the sight of the LORD our God. They abandoned Him, turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and turned their backs on Him. ⁷ They also shut the doors of the portico and extinguished the lamps. They did not burn incense or present burnt offerings in the Holy Place of the God of Israel. ⁸ Therefore, the wrath of the LORD has fallen upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He has made them an object of terror, horror, and mockery, as you can see with your own eyes. ⁹ For behold, this is why our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and daughters and wives are in captivity. ¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, so that His fierce anger will turn away from us.

⁷ Do not be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the LORD, the God of their fathers, so that He made them an object of horror, as you can see.

²¹ “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for those remaining in Israel and Judah concerning the words in the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that has been poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD by doing all that is written in this book.”

¹⁵ Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

⁷ From the days of our fathers to this day, our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities, we and our kings and priests have been delivered into the hands of the kings of the earth and put to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation, as we are this day.

¹⁶ But they and our fathers became arrogant and stiff-necked and did not obey Your commandments.

²⁶ But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

³⁰ You were patient with them for many years, and Your Spirit admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they would not listen, so You gave them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.

⁸ Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

⁶ We have sinned like our fathers; we have done wrong and acted wickedly. ⁷ Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wonders or remember Your abundant kindness; but they rebelled by the sea, there at the Red Sea.

¹⁶ Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil! ¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.” ¹⁸ “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool. ¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best of the land.

⁹ These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction. ¹⁰ They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions. ¹¹ Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”

¹² Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.

¹⁶ This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’ ¹⁷ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.’ But they answered, ‘We will not listen!’

³ Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Correct your ways and deeds, and I will let you live in this place. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words, chanting: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ ⁵ For if you really correct your ways and deeds, if you act justly toward one another, ⁶ if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

⁶ Then the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant and carry them out. ⁷ For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey My voice.’ ⁸ Yet they would not obey or incline their ears, but each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant I had commanded them to follow but they did not keep.”

⁹ “This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ These evil people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this loincloth—of no use at all.

¹⁶ Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the dusky mountains. You wait for light, but He turns it into deep gloom and thick darkness. ¹⁷ But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive. ¹⁸ Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

¹⁹ This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; and stand at all the other gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰ Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, all people of Judah and Jerusalem who enter through these gates. ²¹ This is what the LORD says: Take heed for yourselves; do not carry a load or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. ²² You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers. ²³ Yet they would not listen or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and would not listen or receive My discipline.

¹¹ Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

³ “From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—twenty-three years—the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴ And the LORD has sent all His servants the prophets to you again and again, but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear. ⁵ The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. ⁶ Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.’ ⁷ ‘But to your own harm, you have not listened to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘so you have provoked Me to anger with the works of your hands.’

⁵ and if you do not listen to the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have sent you again and again even though you did not listen,

² “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today. ³ Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.” ⁴ So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the LORD had spoken to Jeremiah. ⁵ Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the LORD; ⁶ so you are to go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting, and in the hearing of the people you are to read the words of the LORD from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who are coming from their cities. ⁷ Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each one will turn from his wicked way; for great are the anger and fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.” ⁸ So Baruch son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. In the house of the LORD he read the words of the LORD from the scroll. ⁹ Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah. ¹⁰ From the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, which was in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the house of the LORD, Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the hearing of all the people.

²³ And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire. ²⁴ Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments.

⁴ Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’ ⁵ But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.

¹⁶ “As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!

⁷ But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted. ⁸ Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. ⁹ I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.”

¹⁴ Now suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father has committed, considers them, and does not do likewise: ¹⁵ He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife. ¹⁶ He does not oppress another, or retain a pledge, or commit robbery. He gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing. ¹⁷ He withholds his hand from harming the poor and takes no interest or usury. He keeps My ordinances and follows My statutes. Such a man will not die for his father’s iniquity. He will surely live.

³⁰ Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each according to his ways, declares the Lord GOD. Repent and turn from all your transgressions, so that your iniquity will not become your downfall. ³¹ Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel? ³² For I take no pleasure in anyone’s death, declares the Lord GOD. So repent and live!

¹³ Therefore, the prudent keep silent in such times, for the days are evil. ¹⁴ Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed. ¹⁵ Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

⁶ “Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

³ So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’

¹¹ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing. ¹² They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts. ¹³ And just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.

⁸ Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,

⁵¹ You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

²⁰ First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.

¹⁵ who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men, ¹⁶ hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.

¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he? ¹¹ As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry, ¹² so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.

¹⁰ The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

⁴ Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.

¹ So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate. ² It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow. ³ This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

⁵ when men fear the heights and dangers of the road, when the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper loses its spring, and the caper berry shrivels—for then man goes to his eternal home and mourners walk the streets.

⁷ before the dust returns to the ground from which it came and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

⁵² “Now we know that You have a demon!” declared the Jews. “Abraham died, and so did the prophets, yet You say that anyone who keeps Your word will never taste death.

³⁶ For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. His body was buried with his fathers and saw decay.

²³ Now there have been many other priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office. ²⁴ But because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood.

²⁷ Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

² by recalling what was foretold by the holy prophets and commanded by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. ³ Most importantly, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. ⁴ “Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

²³ But if you do not do this, you will certainly sin against the LORD—and be assured that your sin will find you out.

⁵⁶ And then I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”

¹⁵ If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

²⁰ The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him.

⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you.

¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who put their young men to the sword in the sanctuary, sparing neither young men nor young women, neither elderly nor infirm. God gave them all into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, ¹⁸ who carried off everything to Babylon—all the articles of the house of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king and his officials. ¹⁹ Then the Chaldeans set fire to the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the palaces and destroyed every article of value. ²⁰ Those who escaped the sword were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into exile in Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. ²¹ So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.

²⁹ Reconsider; do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my righteousness is at stake.

⁸ For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen because they spoke and acted against the LORD, defying His glorious presence. ⁹ The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves. ¹⁰ Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their labor. ¹¹ Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

²⁶ who confirms the message of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, and I will restore their ruins,’

¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you without money, come, buy, and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost!

⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”

¹⁶ And if they will diligently learn the ways of My people and swear by My name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—just as they once taught My people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among My people. ¹⁷ But if they will not obey, then I will uproot that nation; I will uproot it and destroy it, declares the LORD.”

⁸ But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it. ¹¹ Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’

²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart. In the days to come you will understand this clearly.

¹⁵ But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, upon this city, and upon its residents; for truly the LORD has sent me to speak all these words in your hearing.”

²⁸ Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!

¹⁸ The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against His command. Listen, all you people; look upon my suffering. My young men and maidens have gone into captivity.

¹⁷ The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.

¹¹ The LORD has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations. ¹² The kings of the earth did not believe, nor any people of the world, that an enemy or a foe could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁵ because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’” ²⁶ Furthermore, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²⁷ “Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’ ²⁸ Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘None of My words will be delayed any longer. The message I speak will be fulfilled, declares the Lord GOD.’”

⁴³ There you will remember your ways and all the deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the evils you have done.

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope has perished; we are cut off.’

⁶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way. ⁷ She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’ ⁸ For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold—which they crafted for Baal. ⁹ Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness. ¹⁰ And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands. ¹¹ I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts.

¹⁵ All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.

¹⁰ All the sinners among My people will die by the sword—all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”

¹⁸ So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

⁴ But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.

¹ In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying:

³ One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”

¹³ Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand. Joshua approached Him and asked, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”

⁵ One night at Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “Ask, and I will give it to you!”

¹³ In disquieting visions in the night, when deep sleep falls on men,

³ Strap your sword at your side, O mighty warrior; appear in your majesty and splendor. ⁴ In your splendor ride forth in victory on behalf of truth and humility and justice; may your right hand show your awesome deeds.

¹⁶ My beloved is mine and I am his; he pastures his flock among the lilies.

² My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens and to gather lilies.

¹⁹ I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,

¹³ Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will grow, and instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up; they will make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”

¹⁵ For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and humble in spirit, to restore the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite.

¹ Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments? Who is this robed in splendor, marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I, proclaiming vindication, mighty to save.” ² Why are Your clothes red, and Your garments like one who treads the winepress? ³ “I have trodden the winepress alone, and no one from the nations was with Me. I trampled them in My anger and trod them down in My fury; their blood spattered My garments, and all My clothes were stained. ⁴ For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My redemption had come.

¹⁹ During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision, and he blessed the God of heaven

² Daniel declared: “In my vision in the night I looked, and suddenly the four winds of heaven were churning up the great sea.

¹³ In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence.

² The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, ³ the third white horses, and the fourth dappled horses—all of them strong. ⁴ So I inquired of the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵ And the angel told me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth from their station before the Lord of all the earth. ⁶ The one with the black horses is going toward the land of the north, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.” ⁷ As the strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth; and the LORD said, “Go and patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth.

⁷ Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones.

¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

⁴ Then another horse went forth. It was bright red, and its rider was granted permission to take away peace from the earth and to make men slay one another. And he was given a great sword.

¹⁹ Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies assembled to wage war against the One seated on the horse, and against His army. ²⁰ But the beast was captured along with the false prophet, who on its behalf had performed signs deceiving those who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. Both the beast and the false prophet were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded from the mouth of the One seated on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

¹¹ In that dream the angel of God said to me, ‘Jacob!’ And I replied, ‘Here I am.’

¹⁶ I approached one of those who were standing there, and I asked him the true meaning of all this. So he told me the interpretation of these things:

¹⁵ While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there stood before me one having the appearance of a man. ¹⁶ And I heard the voice of a man calling from between the banks of the Ulai: “Gabriel, explain the vision to this man.”

²² He instructed me and spoke with me, saying: “O Daniel, I have come now to give you insight and understanding. ²³ At the beginning of your petitions, an answer went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly precious. So consider the message and understand the vision:

¹¹ He said to me, “Daniel, you are a man who is highly precious. Consider carefully the words that I am about to say to you. Stand up, for I have now been sent to you.” And when he had said this to me, I stood up trembling. ¹² “Do not be afraid, Daniel,” he said, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. ¹³ However, the prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia. ¹⁴ Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision concerns those days.”

¹⁹ So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

³ Then the angel who was speaking with me went out, and another angel came out to meet him

⁴ “What are these, my lord?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me. ⁵ “Do you not know what they are?” replied the angel. “No, my lord,” I answered.

¹¹ Then I asked the angel, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?”

⁵ Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”

⁴ So I inquired of the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵ And the angel told me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth from their station before the Lord of all the earth.

¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?” ¹⁴ “Sir,” I answered, “you know.” So he replied, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

¹ Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. ² The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” ³ And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ⁴ The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls. She held in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. ⁵ And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. ⁶ I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her. ⁷ “Why are you so amazed?” said the angel. “I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.

⁹ Then the angel told me to write, “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰ So I fell at his feet to worship him. But he told me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who rely on the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

⁸ And I am John, who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. ⁹ But he said to me, “Do not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!” ¹⁰ Then he told me, “Do not seal up the words of prophecy in this book, because the time is near. ¹¹ Let the unrighteous continue to be unrighteous, and the vile continue to be vile; let the righteous continue to practice righteousness, and the holy continue to be holy.” ¹² “Behold, I am coming soon, and My reward is with Me, to give to each one according to what he has done. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” ¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates. ¹⁵ But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. ¹⁶ “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright Morning Star.”

²⁴ So Jacob was left all alone, and there a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ “What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied. ²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.” ²⁹ And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there. ³⁰ So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” ³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.

⁷ “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”

¹ On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him. ² “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.”

²⁰ Bless the LORD, all His angels mighty in strength who carry out His word, who hearken to the voice of His command. ²¹ Bless the LORD, all His hosts, you servants who do His will.

⁵ and within it was the form of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: They had a human form, ⁶ but each had four faces and four wings. ⁷ Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, gleaming like polished bronze. ⁸ Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four living creatures had faces and wings, ⁹ and their wings were touching one another. They did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead. ¹⁰ The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle. ¹¹ Such were their faces. Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching the wings of the creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. ¹² Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they moved. ¹³ In the midst of the living creatures was the appearance of glowing coals of fire, or of torches. Fire moved back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. ¹⁴ The creatures were darting back and forth as quickly as flashes of lightning.

³ In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God. ⁴ Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there— ⁵ the LORD is the God of Hosts—the LORD is His name of renown.

⁸ I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.

¹¹ And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.”

¹⁰ For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.”

⁵ And the angel told me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going forth from their station before the Lord of all the earth. ⁶ The one with the black horses is going toward the land of the north, the one with the white horses toward the west, and the one with the dappled horses toward the south.” ⁷ As the strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth; and the LORD said, “Go and patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth. ⁸ Then the LORD summoned me and said, “Behold, those going to the land of the north have given rest to My Spirit in the land of the north.”

¹⁴ Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?

¹⁷ The chariots of God are tens of thousands—thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.

⁷ All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song.

²⁰ “Do you know why I have come to you?” he said. “I must return at once to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I have gone forth, behold, the prince of Greece will come.

¹⁰ Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.”

¹⁵ but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

⁷ As the strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth; and the LORD said, “Go and patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth.

⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness.

⁴⁹ So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous,

³⁰ At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. ³¹ And He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

³¹ When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His glorious throne.

³ While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁷ and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

¹ This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John,

²⁰ Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him. ²² But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes. ²³ For My angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.

²¹ So the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation, until seventy years were completed, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD through Jeremiah.

⁵ You know my folly, O God, and my guilt is not hidden from You.

¹⁰ How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?

¹³ You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show her favor—the appointed time has come.

⁹ In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

⁹ Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people! ¹⁰ Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation. ¹¹ Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins. ¹² After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

¹¹ And this whole land will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. ¹² But when seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their guilt, declares the LORD, and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

¹⁰ For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the sacred books, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.

¹⁰ Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” ¹¹ And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.”

⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?

²⁵ Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them.

¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You avenge our blood and judge those who dwell upon the earth?”

¹ “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God. ² “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”

¹⁰ As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid, declares the LORD, and do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will surely save you out of a distant place, your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return to quiet and ease, with no one to make him afraid. ¹¹ For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.” ¹² For this is what the LORD says: “Your injury is incurable; your wound is grievous. ¹³ There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you. ¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer seek you, for I have struck you as an enemy would, with the discipline of someone cruel, because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins. ¹⁵ Why do you cry out over your wound? Your pain has no cure! Because of your great iniquity and your numerous sins I have done these things to you. ¹⁶ Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries—every one of them—will go off into exile. Those who plundered you will be plundered, and all who raided you will be raided. ¹⁷ But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the LORD, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.” ¹⁸ This is what the LORD says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place. ¹⁹ Thanksgiving will proceed from them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased; I will honor them, and they will not be belittled. ²⁰ Their children will be as in days of old, and their congregation will be established before Me; and I will punish all their oppressors. ²¹ Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will arise from their midst. And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me, for who would dare on his own to approach Me?” declares the LORD. ²² “And you will be My people, and I will be your God.”

³ The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion. ⁴ Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out in joyful dancing. ⁵ Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant and enjoy the fruit. ⁶ For there will be a day when watchmen will call out on the hills of Ephraim, ‘Arise, let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God!’” ⁷ For this is what the LORD says: “Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations! Make your praises heard, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’ ⁸ Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, including the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labor. They will return as a great assembly! ⁹ They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.” ¹⁰ Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD, and proclaim it in distant coastlands: “The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them as a shepherd keeps his flock. ¹¹ For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the hand that had overpowered him. ¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish. ¹³ Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow. ¹⁴ I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly, and will fill My people with My goodness,” declares the LORD.

¹¹ “In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, ¹² that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the LORD, who will do this. ¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow. ¹⁴ I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵ I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

¹⁴ Sing for joy, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! ¹⁵ The LORD has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s King, the LORD, is among you; no longer will you fear any harm. ¹⁶ On that day they will say to Jerusalem: “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. ¹⁷ The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.” ¹⁸ “I will gather those among you who grieve over the appointed feasts, so that you will no longer suffer reproach. ¹⁹ Behold, at that time, I will deal with all who afflict you. I will save the lame and gather the scattered; and I will appoint praise and fame for the disgraced throughout the earth. ²⁰ At that time I will bring you in; yes, at that time I will gather you. For I will give you fame and praise among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your captives before your very eyes,” says the LORD.

⁹ “What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”

¹⁴ Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, ¹⁵ but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’ ¹⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’

⁴ and said to him, “Run and tell that young man: ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock within it. ⁵ For I will be a wall of fire around it, declares the LORD, and I will be the glory within it.’” ⁶ “Get up! Get up! Flee from the land of the north,” declares the LORD, “for I have scattered you like the four winds of heaven,” declares the LORD. ⁷ “Get up, O Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the Daughter of Babylon!” ⁸ For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “After His Glory has sent Me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye— ⁹ I will surely wave My hand over them, so that they will become plunder for their own servants. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me.” ¹⁰ “Shout for joy and be glad, O Daughter of Zion, for I am coming to dwell among you,” declares the LORD. ¹¹ “On that day many nations will join themselves to the LORD, and they will become My people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me to you. ¹² And the LORD will take possession of Judah as His portion in the Holy Land, and He will once again choose Jerusalem.

¹ Then the angel who was speaking with me returned and woke me, as a man is awakened from his sleep.

² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I am jealous for Zion with great zeal; I am jealous for her with great fervor.” ³ This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.” ⁴ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Old men and old women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each with a staff in hand because of great age. ⁵ And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing there.” ⁶ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “If this is impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be impossible in My eyes?” declares the LORD of Hosts. ⁷ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west. ⁸ I will bring them back to dwell in Jerusalem, where they will be My people, and I will be their faithful and righteous God.”

¹⁹ “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: The fasts of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months will become times of joy and gladness, cheerful feasts for the house of Judah. Therefore you are to love both truth and peace.”

⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

²² And Hezekiah had asked, “What will be the sign that I will go up to the house of the LORD?”

¹ “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

⁶ A voice says, “Cry out!” And I asked, “What should I cry out?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field.

¹³ The LORD goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies:

¹⁷ He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.

¹⁵ Look down from heaven and see, from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and might? Your yearning and compassion for me are restrained.

⁸ How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!

¹⁸ Then the LORD became jealous for His land, and He spared His people.

² The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.

¹³ So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.

¹⁷ Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

³ Then the angel who was speaking with me went out, and another angel came out to meet him ⁴ and said to him, “Run and tell that young man: ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock within it.

² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “I am jealous for Zion with great zeal; I am jealous for her with great fervor.” ³ This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”

²⁶ For they persecute the one You struck and recount the pain of those You wounded.

² See how Your enemies rage, how Your foes have reared their heads. ³ With cunning they scheme against Your people and conspire against those You cherish, ⁴ saying, “Come, let us erase them as a nation; may the name of Israel be remembered no more.” ⁵ For with one mind they plot together, they form an alliance against You—

⁴ We have endured much scorn from the arrogant, much contempt from the proud.

⁷ Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

⁵ Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. ⁶ I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets. ⁷ But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.

⁶ I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke. ⁷ You said, ‘I will be queen forever.’ You did not take these things to heart or consider their outcome. ⁸ So now hear this, O lover of luxury who sits securely, who says to herself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or know the loss of children.’ ⁹ These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

⁸ In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer.

¹¹ Moab has been at ease from youth, settled like wine on its dregs; he has not been poured from vessel to vessel or gone into exile. So his flavor has remained the same, and his aroma is unchanged. ¹² Therefore behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will send to him wanderers, who will pour him out. They will empty his vessels and shatter his jars. ¹³ Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed when they trusted in Bethel.

²⁴ Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.

³⁴ “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies and vomited me out. ³⁵ May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” says the dweller of Zion. “May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

³ Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord GOD, for this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile, ⁴ therefore I will indeed give you as a possession to the people of the East. They will set up their camps and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk. ⁵ I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels, and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁶ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt, ⁷ therefore I will indeed stretch out My hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and exterminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁸ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Moab and Seir said, “Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations,” ⁹ therefore I will indeed expose the flank of Moab beginning with its frontier cities—Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim—the glory of the land.

¹² This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah, and in so doing incurred grievous guilt, ¹³ therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword. ¹⁴ I will take My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they will deal with Edom according to My anger and wrath. Then they will know My vengeance, declares the Lord GOD.’ ¹⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because the Philistines acted in vengeance, taking vengeance with malice of soul to destroy Judah with ancient hostility, ¹⁶ therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, I will stretch out My hand against the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites and destroy the remnant along the coast. ¹⁷ I will execute great vengeance against them with furious reproof. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I lay My vengeance upon them.’”

² “Son of man, because Tyre has said of Jerusalem, ‘Aha! The gate to the nations is broken; it has swung open to me; now that she lies in ruins I will be filled,’

⁶ Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD. For you were only a staff of reeds to the house of Israel. ⁷ When Israel took hold of you with their hands, you splintered, tearing all their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke, and their backs were wrenched.

⁴ therefore, O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the desolate ruins and abandoned cities, which have become a spoil and a mockery to the rest of the nations around you. ⁵ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Surely in My burning zeal I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who took My land as their own possession with wholehearted joy and utter contempt, so that its pastureland became plunder.

³ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Damascus, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they threshed Gilead with sledges of iron. ⁴ So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael to consume the citadels of Ben-hadad. ⁵ I will break down the gates of Damascus; I will cut off the ruler of the Valley of Aven and the one who wields the scepter in Beth-eden. The people of Aram will be exiled to Kir,” says the LORD. ⁶ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Gaza, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they exiled a whole population, delivering them up to Edom. ⁷ So I will send fire upon the walls of Gaza, to consume its citadels. ⁸ I will cut off the ruler of Ashdod and the one who wields the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn My hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord GOD. ⁹ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they delivered up a whole congregation of exiles to Edom and broke a covenant of brotherhood. ¹⁰ So I will send fire upon the walls of Tyre to consume its citadels.” ¹¹ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Edom, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and stifled all compassion; his anger raged continually, and his fury flamed incessantly. ¹² So I will send fire upon Teman to consume the citadels of Bozrah.” ¹³ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead in order to enlarge their territory.

¹ Woe to those at ease in Zion and those secure on Mount Samaria, the distinguished ones of the foremost nation, to whom the house of Israel comes.

¹⁰ Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever. ¹¹ On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them. ¹² But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress. ¹³ You should not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over their affliction in the day of their disaster, nor loot their wealth in the day of their disaster. ¹⁴ Nor should you stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, nor deliver up their survivors in the day of their distress. ¹⁵ For the Day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head. ¹⁶ For as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp it down; they will be as if they had never existed.

² “The LORD was very angry with your fathers.

⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.” ⁷ Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?

⁷ As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’ ⁸ Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and grief and famine—and she will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”

⁵ Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

¹ In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me.

¹¹ The desert owl and screech owl will possess it, and the great owl and raven will dwell in it. The LORD will stretch out over Edom a measuring line of chaos and a plumb line of destruction.

²⁶ who confirms the message of His servant and fulfills the counsel of His messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt, and I will restore their ruins,’ ²⁷ who says to the depths of the sea, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your currents,’ ²⁸ who says of Cyrus, ‘My shepherd will fulfill all that I desire,’ who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Let its foundation be laid.’”

⁸ In a surge of anger I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD your Redeemer. ⁹ “For to Me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you. ¹⁰ Though the mountains may be removed and the hills may be shaken, My loving devotion will not depart from you, and My covenant of peace will not be broken,” says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

²² How long will you wander, O faithless daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—a woman will shelter a man.” ²³ This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore them from captivity, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling place, O holy mountain.’ ²⁴ And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in the land, the farmers and those who move with the flocks, ²⁵ for I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.”

³⁹ The measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah. ⁴⁰ The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted—inhabited by neither man nor beast—there will be heard again ¹¹ the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those bringing thank offerings into the house of the LORD, saying: ‘Give thanks to the LORD of Hosts, for the LORD is good; His loving devotion endures forever.’ For I will restore the land from captivity as in former times, says the LORD. ¹² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.

²⁴ My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever. ²⁶ And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever. ²⁷ My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”

²⁵ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Now I will restore Jacob from captivity and will have compassion on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for My holy name. ²⁶ They will forget their disgrace and all the treachery they committed against Me, when they dwell securely in their land, with no one to frighten them. ²⁷ When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them out of the lands of their enemies, I will show My holiness in them in the sight of many nations. ²⁸ Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, when I regather them to their own land, not leaving any of them behind after their exile among the nations. ²⁹ And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD.”

³ So He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze. He was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand.

³ As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and led me through ankle-deep water.

³⁵ The perimeter of the city will be 18,000 cubits, and from that day on the name of the city will be: THE LORD IS THERE.”

¹⁴ So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God,

¹ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. ² “Where are you going?” I asked. “To measure Jerusalem,” he replied, “and to determine its width and length.”

¹⁰ “Shout for joy and be glad, O Daughter of Zion, for I am coming to dwell among you,” declares the LORD. ¹¹ “On that day many nations will join themselves to the LORD, and they will become My people. I will dwell among you, and you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me to you.

⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you.

³ This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”

⁶ But now I have chosen Jerusalem for My Name to be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’

³ These are the heads of the provinces who settled in Jerusalem. (In the villages of Judah, however, each lived on his own property in their towns—the Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants, and descendants of Solomon’s servants—

²⁰ The rest of the Israelites, with the priests and Levites, were in all the villages of Judah, each on his own inheritance.

³⁵ For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it.

¹³ For the LORD has chosen Zion; He has desired it for His home: ¹⁴ “This is My resting place forever and ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired this home.

¹ For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

⁸ “But you, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham My friend— ⁹ I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, ‘You are My servant.’ I have chosen and not rejected you.

¹³ Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; break forth in song, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones.

³ For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.

¹² “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?

⁹ Break forth in joy, sing together, O ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people; He has redeemed Jerusalem.

⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. ⁵ Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers. ⁶ But you will be called the priests of the LORD; they will speak of you as ministers of our God; you will feed on the wealth of nations, and you will boast in their riches.

¹³ As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you, and you will be consoled over Jerusalem.”

¹³ Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

²³ This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore them from captivity, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling place, O holy mountain.’ ²⁴ And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in the land, the farmers and those who move with the flocks,

⁴³ And fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans.’ ⁴⁴ Fields will be purchased with silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah—the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev—because I will restore them from captivity, declares the LORD.”

¹³ In the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev, in the land of Benjamin and the cities surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.

¹⁰ I will multiply the people upon you—the house of Israel in its entirety. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. ¹¹ I will fill you with people and animals, and they will multiply and be fruitful. I will make you as inhabited as you once were, and I will make you prosper more than before. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

³³ This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be resettled and the ruins to be rebuilt.

¹⁴ I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

²⁰ And the exiles of this host of the Israelites will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev.

¹⁵ The LORD has taken away your punishment; He has turned back your enemy. Israel’s King, the LORD, is among you; no longer will you fear any harm. ¹⁶ On that day they will say to Jerusalem: “Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands fall limp. ¹⁷ The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”

¹² And the LORD will take possession of Judah as His portion in the Holy Land, and He will once again choose Jerusalem.

² And the LORD said to Satan: “The LORD rebukes you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a firebrand snatched from the fire?”

²⁸ Regarding the gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. ²⁹ For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.

⁴ For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love

²⁹ In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, and he took the people as captives to Assyria.

¹ In the twelfth year of the reign of Ahaz over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria nine years. ² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him. ³ Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. ⁴ But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison. ⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁹ In the fourth year of Hezekiah’s reign, which was the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah over Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against Samaria and besieged it. ¹⁰ And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel. ¹¹ The king of Assyria exiled the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. ¹² This happened because they did not listen to the voice of the LORD their God, but violated His covenant—all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded—and would neither listen nor obey.

¹ During Jehoiakim’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded. So Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, until he turned and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. ² And the LORD sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim in order to destroy Judah, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servants the prophets. ³ Surely this happened to Judah at the LORD’s command, to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done, ⁴ and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive. ⁵ As for the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, along with all his accomplishments, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ⁶ And Jehoiakim rested with his fathers, and his son Jehoiachin reigned in his place. ⁷ Now the king of Egypt did not march out of his land again, because the king of Babylon had taken all his territory, from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River. ⁸ Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem. ⁹ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father had done. ¹⁰ At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege. ¹¹ And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it. ¹² Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive. ¹³ As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD. ¹⁴ He carried into exile all Jerusalem—all the commanders and mighty men of valor, all the craftsmen and metalsmiths—ten thousand captives in all. Only the poorest people of the land remained. ¹⁵ Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the king’s mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. ¹⁶ The king of Babylon also brought into exile to Babylon all seven thousand men of valor and a thousand craftsmen and metalsmiths—all strong and fit for battle. ¹⁷ Then the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah. ¹⁸ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ¹⁹ And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done. ²⁰ For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence. And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon.

³⁷ You, O king, are the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength, and glory. ³⁸ Wherever the sons of men or beasts of the field or birds of the air dwell, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. ³⁹ But after you, there will arise another kingdom, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule the whole earth. ⁴⁰ Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; for iron shatters and crushes all things, and like iron that crushes all things, it will shatter and crush all the others. ⁴¹ And just as you saw that the feet and toes were made partly of fired clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom, yet some of the strength of iron will be in it—just as you saw the iron mixed with clay. ⁴² And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. ⁴³ As you saw the iron mixed with clay, so the peoples will mix with one another, but will not hold together any more than iron mixes with clay.

³ Then four great beasts came up out of the sea, each one different from the others: ⁴ The first beast was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and given the mind of a man. ⁵ Suddenly another beast appeared, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. So it was told, ‘Get up and gorge yourself on flesh!’ ⁶ Next, as I watched, another beast appeared. It was like a leopard, and on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. The beast also had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. ⁷ After this, as I watched in my vision in the night, suddenly a fourth beast appeared, and it was terrifying—dreadful and extremely strong—with large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed; then it trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns. ⁸ While I was contemplating the horns, suddenly another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like those of a man and a mouth that spoke words of arrogance.

³ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a ram with two horns standing beside the canal. The horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one grew up later. ⁴ I saw the ram charging toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against him, and there was no deliverance from his power. He did as he pleased and became great. ⁵ As I was contemplating all this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came out of the west, crossing the surface of the entire earth without touching the ground. ⁶ He came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and rushed at him with furious power. ⁷ I saw him approach the ram in a rage against him, and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him, and the goat threw him to the ground and trampled him, and no one could deliver the ram from his power. ⁸ Thus the goat became very great, but at the height of his power, his large horn was broken off, and four prominent horns came up in its place, pointing toward the four winds of heaven. ⁹ From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land. ¹⁰ It grew as high as the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host and some of the stars to the earth, and trampled them. ¹¹ It magnified itself, even to the Prince of the host; it removed His daily sacrifice and overthrew the place of His sanctuary. ¹² And in the rebellion, the host and the daily sacrifice were given over to the horn, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in whatever it did. ¹³ Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long until the fulfillment of the vision of the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?” ¹⁴ He said to me, “It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be properly restored.”

²⁸ The king of the North will return to his land with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant; so he will do damage and return to his own land. ²⁹ At the appointed time he will invade the South again, but this time will not be like the first. ³⁰ Ships of Kittim will come against him, and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and rage against the holy covenant and do damage. So he will return and show favor to those who forsake the holy covenant. ³¹ His forces will rise up and desecrate the temple fortress. They will abolish the daily sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation. ³² With flattery he will corrupt those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. ³³ Those with insight will instruct many, though for a time they will fall by sword or flame, or be captured or plundered. ³⁴ Now when they fall, they will be granted a little help, but many will join them insincerely. ³⁵ Some of the wise will fall, so that they may be refined, purified, and made spotless until the time of the end, for it will still come at the appointed time.

¹ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.

¹ Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.

⁹ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw two women approaching, with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

¹ When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel,

⁴ Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build.

⁷ And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. It was written in Aramaic and then translated.

³ At that time Tattenai the governor of the region west of the Euphrates, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates went to the Jews and asked, “Who authorized you to rebuild this temple and restore this structure?”

¹⁷ Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.” ¹⁸ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I will punish the king of Babylon and his land as I punished the king of Assyria.

⁷ And the man dressed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by Him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, and times, and half a time. When the power of the holy people has finally been shattered, all these things will be completed.”

¹³ you who rejoice in Lo-debar and say, ‘Did we not take Karnaim by our own strength?’

¹⁴ With his own spear You pierced his head, when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though ready to secretly devour the weak.

²¹ “What are these coming to do?” I asked. And He replied, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

² “Where are you going?” I asked. “To measure Jerusalem,” he replied, “and to determine its width and length.”

¹¹ Then I asked the angel, “What are the two olive trees on the right and left of the lampstand?” ¹² And I questioned him further, “What are the two olive branches beside the two gold pipes from which the golden oil pours?” ¹³ “Do you not know what these are?” he inquired. “No, my lord,” I replied. ¹⁴ So he said, “These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth.”

¹⁴ For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Just as I resolved to bring disaster upon you when your fathers provoked Me to anger, and I did not relent,” says the LORD of Hosts,

²⁵ May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze, and may your strength match your days.”

¹⁶ But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.

¹⁸ Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, since the Arnon was its border.

¹¹ So the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.

²⁷ So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

¹⁵ If anyone attacks you, it is not from Me; whoever assails you will fall before you. ¹⁶ Behold, I have created the craftsman who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its task; and I have created the destroyer to wreak havoc. ¹⁷ No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.

²¹ The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will belong to the LORD.

⁵ And He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land and tramples our citadels. We will raise against it seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men. ⁶ And they will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the blade drawn. So He will deliver us when Assyria invades our land and marches into our borders.

⁸ Then the remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which tramples and tears as it passes through, with no one to rescue them. ⁹ Your hand will be lifted over your foes, and all your enemies will be cut off.

¹² Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; even today I declare that I will restore to you double. ¹³ For I will bend Judah as My bow and fit it with Ephraim. I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece. I will make you like the sword of a mighty man. ¹⁴ Then the LORD will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will sound the ram’s horn and advance in the whirlwinds of the south. ¹⁵ The LORD of Hosts will shield them. They will destroy and conquer with slingstones; they will drink and roar as with wine. And they will be filled like sprinkling bowls, drenched like the corners of the altar. ¹⁶ On that day the LORD their God will save them as the flock of His people; for like jewels in a crown they will sparkle over His land.

³ “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. For the LORD of Hosts attends to His flock, the house of Judah; He will make them like His royal steed in battle. ⁴ The cornerstone will come from Judah, the tent peg from him, as well as the battle bow and every ruler together. ⁵ They will be like mighty men in battle, trampling the enemy in the mire of the streets. They will fight because the LORD is with them, and they will put the horsemen to shame.

² “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem. ³ On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured. ⁴ On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and every rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah, but I will strike with blindness all the horses of the nations. ⁵ Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘The people of Jerusalem are my strength, for the LORD of Hosts is their God.’ ⁶ On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.

⁴ I say to the proud, ‘Do not boast,’ and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn. ⁵ Do not lift up your horn against heaven or speak with an outstretched neck.’”

¹⁰ “All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”