Zechariah 14

1 Listen! It will soon be the time when Yahweh [will judge everyone]. At that time, the possessions that were taken from you [people of Jerusalem by your enemies will be returned to you, and] will be divided among you.

A day is coming for the Lord, when your plundered possessions will be divided while you watch.

2 [Before that happens, ] Yahweh will cause [the armies of] many [HYP] nations to attack Jerusalem. They will capture the city and steal all the valuable things from your houses and rape the women. They will take half of the people to other countries, but the other half of the people will be allowed to remain in the city.

And all the nations will gather to Jerusalem, to fight against it. The city will be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city will go into captivity, and the rest of the people left in the ruins.

3 Then Yahweh will go out to fight against those nations; he will fight like [SIM] [soldiers] fight in a battle.

Then the Lord will go forth and fight against these nations, as once he fought in the day of battle.

4 On that day, he will stand on Olive [Tree] Hill, east of Jerusalem. Olive [Tree] Hill will be split into two [parts], with a large valley between the parts. Half of the hill will move toward the north and half [will move] toward the south.

On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, (which is opposite Jerusalem, on the east). The Mount of Olives will be split into halves, from east to west, by an exceedingly great valley; and half of the mountain will slide northwards and half southwards.

5 People will flee through that valley which extends to the other side (OR, to Azel), like [SIM] people fled when there was an earthquake during the time that King Uzziah ruled Judah. Then Yahweh my God will come with his holy [angels].

You will escape through my valley – the valley between the hills will extend as far as Azel, and you will flee as you fled from before the earthquake, in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. But the Lord your God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

6 At that time, there will be no light [from the sun]; it will not become cold and there will be no frost.

And in that day, there will be no heat nor cold nor frost,

7 There has been no other time like that time, and only Yahweh knows when it will happen. There will be no daytime or nighttime; there will be [light continually], [even] in the evening.

but it will be constant day – it is known to the Lord – with neither day nor night. Even at evening time there will be light.

8 At that time, running/fresh water will flow from Jerusalem. One stream will flow toward the east to the [Dead] Sea. The other stream will flow toward the west to the [Mediterranean] Sea. The water will flow [all the time], during (summer/the hot season) as well as in (winter/the cold season).

And on that day living waters will flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; in both summer and winter.

9 After that time, Yahweh will be the king [who rules] the entire world. [Everyone will know that] Yahweh, and only Yahweh [MTY], is the true God.

The Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one, and his name one.

10 [At that time, ] all the land [in Judah] from Geba [town at the north] to Rimmon [town far to] the south of Jerusalem, will become a plain. Jerusalem will remain raised up like it has always been. [It will extend] from the Benjamin Gate and the First Gate [northeast] to the Tower of Hananel, and to the king’s winepresses [to the southwest].

The land will be changed to plain, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem will be high and inhabited as it stands, from the Benjamin Gate up to the place of the first gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate, and as far as the king’s winepresses.

11 Many people will live there, and the city will never be destroyed again. It will be a safe city.

Jerusalem will be inhabited, for never again will it be doomed to destruction, and its people will abide in security.

12 But Yahweh will cause the people in all the nations that attacked Jerusalem to be afflicted by a (plague/severe illness). Their flesh will rot while they are still standing up. Their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

This is the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who array themselves against Jerusalem: he will make their flesh rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouth.

13 At that time, Yahweh will cause many people to panic. People will grab and attack each other.

On that day a great panic sent by the Lord will fall on them. Everyone will seize their neighbours and attack them.

14 [The people who live in other places in] Judah will fight to defend Jerusalem. They will collect the valuable things from the surrounding nations—a lot of gold and silver and clothes.

Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of the surrounding nations will be gathered up – gold and silver and piles of clothing.

15 The same plague [that will afflict the people of other nations] will afflict their horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other work animals in their (camps/places where they have set up their tents).

Plague will fall upon the horses, mules, camels, and asses, and on all the animals in all those camps.

16 The people of other nations who [previously] came [to fight] against Jerusalem, all those who are still alive, will return to Jerusalem every year to worship the King, the Commander of the armies of angels, and to celebrate the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters.

All who are left of all the nations which fought against Jerusalem will come up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the pilgrim-feast of tabernacles.

17 If there are people in those nations who do not go [to Jerusalem to worship there], rain will not fall on their land.

Whoever of all the peoples of the earth will not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain.

18 If the people of Egypt [or any other nation] do not go to Jerusalem, [they will not have any rain]. And Yahweh will cause them to experience the same plague that afflicted the [people of other] nations that did not celebrate the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters.

If the family of Egypt does not go up nor enter in, on them also will come the plague with which the Lord will strike the nations.

19 That is how [Yahweh] will punish [the people of] Egypt and [the people of] any [other] nation who do not go [to Jerusalem] to celebrate the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters.

This will be the punishment for the sin of Egypt and the punishment for the sin of all nations which do not come up to keep the feast of the tabernacles.

20 At that time, [the words] ‘Dedicated to Yahweh’ will be written on the bells that are fastened to the horses. The [cooking] pots in [the courtyard of the] temple will be [sacred], like the bowls that are near the altar.

On that day there will be inscribed upon the bells of the horses, ‘Holy to the Lord’ and the pots in the house of the Lord will be as holy as the sacrificial bowls before the altars.

21 Every pot in Jerusalem and [in other places in] Judah will be dedicated to the Commander of the armies of angels. So everyone who offers sacrifices [there in Jerusalem] will be able to take some of the meat that has been brought for sacrifices, and cook it in their own pots. And at that time, people will no longer buy or sell things in [the courtyard of] the temple of the Commander of the armies of angels.

Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of hosts and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and cook the sacrifices in them. There will be no more traffickers in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day.