Through My Bible Yr 2 – February 11

¹⁸ The Lord is zealous for his land,
    and he will take pity on his people.
¹⁹ The Lord will respond to them:
        I am sending you grain, new wine, and fresh oil,
        enough to satisfy you fully.
        Never again will I subject you to scorn among the nations.
²⁰         I will drive the northern invaders far from you,
        pushing them into a parched and desolate land.
        Their vanguard will be driven into the eastern sea ^[1]
        and their rearguard into the western sea. ^[2]
        Then their stench will go up. Their foul smell will go up.

    Yes, the Lord ^[3] has done great things.
²¹ Do not be afraid, O earth.
    Celebrate and be glad.
    Yes, the Lord has done great things.
²² Do not be afraid, you animals out in the field,
    because the grazing lands are becoming green.
    The trees are bearing their fruit.
    The fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
²³ Celebrate, you people of Zion!
    Rejoice in the Lord your God,
    because he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness. ^[4]
    He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, ^[5] as he did in the beginning.
²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain.
    The vats will overflow with new wine and olive oil.

²⁵ I will repay you for the years eaten by the swarming locusts,
        by the young locusts, the mature locusts, and the grasshoppers, ^[6]
        my great army that I sent among you.
²⁶ You will have plenty to eat.
    You will eat until you are full,
    and you will praise the name of the Lord your God,
        who has worked wonders for you.

    Never again will my people be put to shame!

²⁷ Then you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    that I am the Lord your God,
    and that there is no other.

    Never again will my people be put to shame!

²⁸ After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. ^[7]
    Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
    Your old men will dream dreams.
    Your young men will see visions.
²⁹ Even on the servants, both male and female,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
³⁰ I will show warning signs in the heavens and on the earth:
    blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood,
    before the coming of the great and terrifying day of the Lord.
³² And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. ^[8]
    So on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance,
    as the Lord has promised, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

¹ Look! In those days and at that time,
when I restore the fortunes ^[9] of Judah and Jerusalem, ^[10]

² I will gather all nations
    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. ^[11]
    There I will enter into judgment against them
        for the sake of my possession, my people Israel,
        whom they scattered among the nations.
    The nations also divided up my land.
³ They cast lots for my people
    and traded boys to pay prostitutes.
    They sold girls for wine so that they could drink.

⁴ Tell me, what do you have against me,
        Tyre and Sidon, and all you regions of Philistia?
    Are you repaying me for something I have done?
    If you are paying me back,
    I will swiftly and speedily repay onto your own heads what you have done,
⁵ because you took my silver and my gold,
    and you carried off my best treasures to your temples.
⁶ You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,
    in order to send them far from their own borders.
⁷ See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them,
    and I will make what you have done return on your own heads.
⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah,
    and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away. ^[12]
    Yes, the Lord has spoken.

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations:
    Consecrate yourselves for war!
    Rouse the strong warriors!
    Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.

¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords,
    and your pruning knives into spears.
    Let the weakling say, “I am a strong warrior!”
¹¹ Come quickly to help, all you nations from every side,
    and assemble there.
    Bring down your strong warriors, O Lord!

¹² Let the nations be roused.
    Let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
    for there I will be seated to judge all the nations.
¹³ Swing the sickle,
        for the harvest is ripe.
    Come, trample the grapes,
        for the winepress is full and the vats overflow,
    because the nations’ wickedness is so great!

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision!
    For the Day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision.
¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened,
    and the stars will stop shining.
¹⁶ The Lord will roar from Zion
    and shout from Jerusalem.
    The sky and the earth will tremble.
    But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
    a stronghold for the people of Israel.
¹⁷ Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
    Jerusalem will be holy.
    Foreigners will not pass through her again.

¹⁸ In that day the mountains will drip sweet wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk.
    All the stream beds of Judah will run with water.
    A fountain will flow out of the Lord’s house.
    It will water the Valley of Acacias.
¹⁹ Egypt will be desolate.
    Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
    because of violence they committed against the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.
²⁰ Judah will be inhabited forever,
    and Jerusalem through all generations.
²¹ I will pardon their bloodguilt, which I have not pardoned. ^[13]

    The Lord dwells in Zion!