3 For behold, in those days and at that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

² I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for [their treatment of] My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and [because] they have divided My land.

³ And they have cast lots for My people, and have given a boy for a harlot and have sold a girl for juice [of the grape] and have drunk it.

⁴ Yes, and what are you to Me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the [five small] divisions of Philistia? Will you pay Me back for something? Even if you pay Me back, swiftly and speedily I will return your deed [of retaliation] upon your own head,^(A)

⁵ Because you have taken My silver and My gold and have carried into your temples and palaces My precious treasures,

⁶ And have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Grecians, that you may remove them far from their border.

⁷ Behold, I will stir them up out of the place to which you have sold them and will return your deed [of retaliation] upon your own head.

⁸ I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off, for the Lord has spoken it.^(B)

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war! Stir up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.

¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong [a warrior]!^(C)

¹¹ Hasten and come, all you nations round about, and assemble yourselves; there You, O Lord, will bring down Your mighty ones (Your warriors).

¹² Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.

¹³ Put in the sickle, for the [vintage] harvest is ripe; come, get down and tread the grapes, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for the wickedness [of the peoples] is great.^(D)

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.^(E)

¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶ The Lord will thunder and roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel.^(F)

¹⁷ So shall you know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and strangers and foreigners [not born into the family of God] shall no more pass through it.

¹⁸ And in that day, the mountains shall drip with fresh juice [of the grape] and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the brooks and riverbeds of Judah shall flow with water, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim.^(G)

¹⁹ Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for their violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰ But Judah shall remain and be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹ And I will cleanse and hold as innocent their blood and avenge it, blood which I have not cleansed, held innocent, and avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.

8 And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,

² Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath [against her enemies].

³ Thus says the Lord: I shall return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the [faithful] City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.

⁴ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again dwell in Jerusalem and sit out in the streets, every man with his staff in his hand for very [advanced] age.

⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Because it will be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days [in which it comes to pass], should it also be marvelous in My eyes? says the Lord of hosts.^(A)

⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country and from the west [the country of the going down of the sun].^(B)

⁸ And I will bring them [home] and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and faithfulness and in righteousness.

⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strong and hardened, you who in these days hear these words from the mouths of the prophets who on the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid foretold that the temple should be rebuilt.

¹⁰ For before those days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, neither was there any peace or success to him who went out or came in because of the adversary and oppressor, for I set (let loose) all men, every one against his neighbor.

¹¹ But now [in this period since you began to build] I am not to the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts.

¹² For there shall the seed produce peace and prosperity; the vine shall yield her fruit and the ground shall give its increase and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit and possess all these things.

¹³ And as you have been a curse and a byword among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong and hardened.^(C)

¹⁴ For thus says the Lord of hosts: As I thought to bring calamity upon you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I did not relent or revoke your sentence,

¹⁵ So again have I purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear not!

¹⁶ These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor; render the truth and pronounce the judgment or verdict that makes for peace in [the courts at] your gates.^(D)

¹⁷ And let none of you think or imagine or devise evil or injury in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the Lord.

¹⁸ And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me [Zechariah], saying,

¹⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah times of joy and gladness and cheerful, appointed seasons; therefore [in order that this may happen to you, as the condition of fulfilling the promise] love truth and peace.

²⁰ Thus says the Lord of hosts: It shall yet come to pass that there shall come [to Jerusalem] peoples and the inhabitants of many and great cities,

²¹ And the inhabitants of one city shall go to them of another, saying, Let us go speedily to pray and entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek, inquire of, and require [to meet our own most essential need] the Lord of hosts. I will go also.

²² Yes, many people and strong nations shall come to Jerusalem to seek, inquire of, and require [to fill their own urgent need] the Lord of hosts and to pray to the Lord for His favor.

²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men out of all languages of the nations shall take hold of the robe of him who is a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

13 Just at that time there [arrived] some people who informed Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

² And He replied by saying to them, Do you think that these Galileans were greater sinners than all the other Galileans because they have suffered in this way?

³ I tell you, No; but unless you repent (^[a]change your mind for the better and heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins), you will all likewise perish and be lost ^[b]eternally.

⁴ Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them—do you think that they were more guilty offenders (debtors) than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem?

⁵ I tell you, No; but unless you repent (^[c]change your mind for the better and heartily amend your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins), you will all likewise perish and be lost ^[d]eternally.

⁶ And He told them this parable: A certain man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it, but did not find [any].

⁷ So he said to the vinedresser, See here! For these three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and I find none. Cut it down! Why should it continue also to use up the ground [to ^[e]deplete the soil, intercept the sun, and take up room]?

⁸ But he replied to him, Leave it alone, sir, [just] this one more year, till I dig around it and put manure [on the soil].

⁹ Then perhaps it will bear fruit after this; but if not, you can cut it down and out.

8 Now about food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature].

² If anyone imagines that he has come to know and understand much [of divine things, without love], he does not yet perceive and recognize and understand as strongly and clearly, nor has he become as intimately acquainted with anything as he ought or as is necessary.

³ But if one loves God truly [^[a]with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [^[b]recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him].

⁴ In this matter, then, of eating food offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing (has no real existence) and that there is no God but one.^(A)

⁵ For although there may be so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many of them, both of gods and of lords and masters,

⁶ Yet for us there is [only] one God, the Father, Who is the Source of all things and for Whom we [have life], and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through and by Whom are all things and through and by Whom we [ourselves exist].^(B)

⁷ Nevertheless, not all [believers] possess this knowledge. But some, through being all their lives until now accustomed to [thinking of] idols [as real and living], still consider the food [offered to an idol] as that sacrificed to an [actual] god; and their weak consciences become defiled and injured if they eat [it].

⁸ Now food [itself] will not cause our acceptance by God nor commend us to Him. Eating [food offered to idols] gives us no advantage; neither do we come short or become any worse if we do not eat [it].

⁹ Only be careful that this power of choice (this permission and liberty to do as you please) which is yours, does not [somehow] become a hindrance (cause of stumbling) to the weak or overscrupulous [giving them an impulse to sin].

¹⁰ For suppose someone sees you, a man having knowledge [of God, with an intelligent view of this subject and] reclining at table in an idol’s temple, might he not be encouraged and emboldened [to violate his own conscientious scruples] if he is weak and uncertain, and eat what [to him] is for the purpose of idol worship?

¹¹ And so by your enlightenment (your knowledge of spiritual things), this weak man is ruined (is lost and perishes)—the brother for whom Christ (the Messiah) died!

¹² And when you sin against your brethren in this way, wounding and damaging their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

¹³ Therefore, if [my eating a] food is a cause of my brother’s falling or of hindering [his spiritual advancement], I will not eat [such] flesh forever, lest I cause my brother to be tripped up and fall and to be offended.