The Lord Comes to the Mount of Olives

14 “Look! A day is coming for the Lord, when your plunder will be divided among you. ² I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem, to lay siege against it. The city will be captured, the houses will be ransacked, the women raped, and half of the city will go into exile, but the remaining people will not be cut off from the city. ³ Then the Lord will go out to battle against those nations, waging war as in a day of battle. ⁴ His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming^[a] a very large valley, with half of the mountain moving toward the north and half toward the south. ⁵ You will run away through my mountain valley, because the valley of the mountains will extend as far as Azal. You will flee, as you fled from the earthquake during the reign of King Uzziah of Judah. And so the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones will be accompanying you.”

A Unique Day

⁶ “At that time,^[b] the daylight will be neither bright nor overcast. ⁷ It will be a unique day, known only to the Lord—neither daytime nor nighttime—and it will come about at twilight there will be light! ⁸ At that time,^[c] flowing waters will run perennially^[d] from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead^[e] Sea and half to the Mediterranean^[f] Sea. ⁹ The Lord will be king over all the earth at that time.^[g] There^[h] will be one Lord, and his name the only one. ¹⁰ The entire land will become like the Arabah plain from Geba^[i] to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem. It will be raised up and inhabited where it is, from the Gate of Benjamin to the First Gate, then to the Corner Gate, to the Hananel Tower, and to the king’s winepresses. ¹¹ People^[j] will live there, there will be no more destruction, and Jerusalem will be safely inhabited.”

God’s Judgment on Jerusalem’s Attackers

¹² “This will be the plague with which the Lord inflicts all of the people who have attacked Jerusalem: he will cause their flesh to rot away, even while they’re standing on their feet. He will cause their eyes to rot away in their sockets, and their tongues to rot away in their mouths. ¹³ At that time,^[k] they will be stricken with a terrible panic from the Lord. Everyone will attack each other. ¹⁴ Judah, too, will fight at Jerusalem. Then the wealth of the surrounding nations will be gathered up: gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance. ¹⁵ A similar plague will also strike horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all of the animals in those camps.”

Discipline of the Nations

¹⁶ “It will come about that all of the survivors of the nations who came against Jerusalem will come there from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, and to observe the Festival of Tents. ¹⁷ If anyone from the families of the earth will not come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, there will be no rain for them. ¹⁸ If the people of Egypt do not come to Jerusalem^[l] to take part, they will have no annual Nile overflow.^[m] A plague will come from the Lord to strike the nations who do not come to observe the Festival of Tents. ¹⁹ This will be the punishment for Egypt and all nations who do not come to observe the Festival of Tents.”

Holiness to the Lord

²⁰ “At that time,^[n] there will be written on the bells of the horses:

Holiness to the Lord

and the pots in the Temple of the Lord will be like the bowls in front of the altar— ²¹ every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be consecrated to the Lord of the Heavenly Armies. Everyone who offers sacrifices will come, will take them, and will cook in them. Furthermore, at that time,^[o] there will no longer be a Canaanite in the Temple of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.”