The Lord’s Triumph and Reign

1 Look, a day belonging to the Lord is cominga when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your presence. 2I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle.a The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.

3Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations as he fights on a day of battle.a 4On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,a which faces Jerusalem on the east. The Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley, so that half the mountain will move to the north and half to the south. 5You will flee by my mountain valley,A for the valley of the mountains will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fledB from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah.a Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy onesb with him.C c

6On that day there will be no light; the sunlight and moonlight will diminish.a B a 7It will be a unique day known only to the Lord,a without day or night, but there will be light at evening.

8On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem,a half of it toward the eastern seaA and the other half toward the western sea,B in summer and winter alike. 9On that day the Lord will become King over the whole eartha — the Lord alone, and his name alone.b 10All the land from Gebaa to Rimmonb south of Jerusalem will be changed into a plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up and will remainA on its site from the Benjamin Gatec to the place of the First Gate,B to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.d 11People will live there, and never again will there be a curse of complete destruction. So Jerusalem will dwell in security.

12This will be the plague with which the Lord strikes all the people who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13On that day a great panic from the Lord will be among them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of one will rise against the other. 14Judah will also fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected: gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.a 15The same plague as the previous one will strikeA the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the animals that are in those camps.

16Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.a 17Should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Armies, rain will not fall on them. 18And if the peopleA of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the Lord inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 19This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.

20On that day, the words Holy to the Lord will be on the bells of the horses.a The pots in the house of the Lord will be like the sprinkling basins before the altar. 21Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Armies. All who sacrifice will come and use the pots to cook in. And on that day there will no longer be a CanaaniteA in the house of the Lord of Armies.