God Will Battle Jerusalem’s Foes

1Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you (Jerusalem) will be divided in your midst. 2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured and the houses plundered and the women ravished; and half of the city will be exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. 3Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. 4In that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from the east to the west by a very large valley, and half of the mountain will move toward the north and half of it toward the south. 5You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; and you will flee just as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my [a]God will come, and all the holy ones (believers, angels) with Him.

6In that day there will be no light; the glorious ones (heavenly bodies) shall be darkened. 7But it will be a unique day which is known to the LORD--not day and not night, but at evening time there will be light.

8And in that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and half of them to the western sea (the Mediterranean); it will be in summer as well as in winter.

God Will Be King over All

9And the LORD shall be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD shall be the only one [worshiped], and His name the only one.

10All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon, [the Rimmon that is] south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and remain [lifted up] on its site from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. 11It will be inhabited, for there will no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will dwell in security.

12Now this will be the plague with which the LORD shall strike all the peoples that have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. 13In that day a great panic and dismay from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. 14Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered together--gold and silver and garments in great abundance. 15So like this plague [on men] there will be the plague on the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the livestock in those camps.

16Then everyone who is left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles). 17And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. 18If the family of Egypt does not go up [to Jerusalem] and present themselves, then no rain will fall on them. It will be the plague with which the LORD will strike the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles). 19This will be the [consequent] punishment [for the sin] of Egypt, and the [consequent] punishment [for the sin] of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).

20In that day there will be written on the little bells on the horses, “[b]HOLY TO THE LORD.” And the cooking pots in the LORD’S house will be [holy to the LORD] like the bowls before the altar. 21Every cooking pot in [all the houses in] Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of hosts, and all who sacrifice will come and take them and boil [their sacrifices] in them. And in that day there will no longer be a Canaanite [that is, any godless or spiritually unclean person, whether Jew or Gentile] in the house of the LORD of hosts.

[a] 5 The second coming of Christ to the earth is taught many times in Scripture. See Deut 30:3; Zech 14:3, 4; Matt 16:27; 24:3-14, 27, 36-39; 25:31, 32; 26:64; Luke 21:25-28; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Cor 1:7, 8; 4:5; 1 Tim 6:14; 2 Tim 4:1; Titus 2:13; Heb 9:28; 1 John 2:28; Rev 3:11; 16:15; 22:7, 20.
[b] 20 What had previously been reserved for the most sacred occasions now will adorn common objects, thus eliminating the difference between the sacred and the secular.