Joel 3:9-21

New King James Version

⁹^(A)Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for war!
Wake up the mighty men,
Let all the men of war draw near,
Let them come up.
¹⁰^(B)Beat your plowshares into swords
And your ^[a]pruning hooks into spears;
^(C)Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”
¹¹Assemble and come, all you nations,
And gather together all around.
Cause ^(D)Your mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.

¹²“Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;
For there I will sit to ^(E)judge all the surrounding nations.
¹³^(F)Put in the sickle, for ^(G)the harvest is ripe.
Come, go down;
For the ^(H)winepress is full,
The vats overflow—
For their wickedness is great.”

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!
For ^(I)the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark,
And the stars will diminish their brightness.
¹⁶The Lord also will roar from Zion,
And utter His voice from Jerusalem;
The heavens and earth will shake;
^(J)But the Lord will be a shelter for His people,
And the strength of the children of Israel.

¹⁷“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
Dwelling in Zion My ^(K)holy mountain.
Then Jerusalem shall be holy,
And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”

God Blesses His People

¹⁸And it will come to pass in that day
That the mountains shall drip with new wine,
The hills shall flow with milk,
And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;
A ^(L)fountain shall flow from the house of the Lord
And water the Valley of ^[b]Acacias.

¹⁹“Egypt shall be a desolation,
And Edom a desolate wilderness,
Because of violence against the people of Judah,
For they have shed innocent blood in their land.
²⁰But Judah shall abide forever,
And Jerusalem from generation to generation.
²¹For I will ^(M)acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;
For the Lord dwells in Zion.”

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Footnotes

Joel 3:10 pruning knives
Joel 3:18 Heb. Shittim

Zechariah 8:18-23

New King James Version

¹⁸Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, ¹⁹“Thus says the Lord of hosts:

^(A)‘The fast of the fourth month,
^(B)The fast of the fifth,
^(C)The fast of the seventh,
^(D)And the fast of the tenth,
Shall be ^(E)joy and gladness and cheerful feasts
For the house of Judah.
^(F)Therefore love truth and peace.’

²⁰“Thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘Peoples shall yet come,
Inhabitants of many cities;
²¹The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying,
^(G)“Let us continue to go and pray before the Lord,
And seek the Lord of hosts.
I myself will go also.”
²²Yes, ^(H)many peoples and strong nations
Shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem,
And to pray before the Lord.’

²³“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days ten men ^(I)from every language of the nations shall ^(J)grasp the ^[a]sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard ^(K)that God is with you.” ’ ”

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Footnotes

Zechariah 8:23 Lit. wing, corner of a garment

1 Corinthians 8

New King James Version

Be Sensitive to Conscience

8 Now ^(A)concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have ^(B)knowledge. ^(C)Knowledge ^[a]puffs up, but love ^[b]edifies. ²And ^(D)if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. ³But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.

⁴Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that ^(E)an idol is nothing in the world, ^(F)and that there is no other God but one. ⁵For even if there are ^(G)so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as there are many gods and many lords), ⁶yet ^(H)for us there is one God, the Father, ^(I)of whom are all things, and we for Him; and ^(J)one Lord Jesus Christ, ^(K)through whom are all things, and ^(L)through whom we live.

⁷However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, ^(M)with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is ^(N)defiled. ⁸But ^(O)food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse.

⁹But ^(P)beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become ^(Q)a ^[c]stumbling block to those who are weak. ¹⁰For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not ^(R)the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? ¹¹And ^(S)because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? ¹²But ^(T)when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, ^(U)if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.