Zec 14 | EE | STEP | There will be a day when your enemies will take away everything. They will take away everything that is yours. They will each have some of your things.

Zechariah 14

The LORD comes

1 There will be a day when your enemies will take away everything. They will take away everything that is yours. They will each have some of your things.

2 I will bring soldiers from all countries to fight against Jerusalem. They will go into the city and they will rob the houses. They will have sex with the women. They will lead away half the people to other countries. They will let the other half stay in Jerusalem.

3 Then the LORD will go out. And he will fight against the people from those countries as in past years.

4 On that day, the LORD‘s feet will stand on the mountain of Olives. This mountain is east of Jerusalem. It will break in two from east to west and it will make a wide valley. Half of the mountain will move north and half of the mountain will move south.

5 In the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, you ran away when the earth moved. You will do this again. Then the LORD will come. And all those who are holy will come with him. ^{▼▼14:5 We are not sure about ‘those who are holy’. Some students think that these are people. And some students think that they are angels.}

6 On that day, it will not be light in some places and dark in other places.

7 It will be a day like no other day. There will be no night. When it is evening, there will still be light. Only the LORD himself will know that day.

8 On that day, water will come out from Jerusalem. Half of this water will go towards the sea in the east. Half of this water will go towards the sea in the west. This will go on during summer and winter.

9 The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be only one LORD and he will have only one name.

10 All the land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become flat. But Jerusalem will rise and it will be high in its place. The city will be from the Gate of Benjamin to the Corner Gate and to the High Building of Hananel. The place where the servants of the king make his wine will be in it too.

11 Jerusalem will be safe. People will live there. Nobody will destroy Jerusalem ever again.

12 The LORD will make the people sick that fought against Jerusalem. Their bodies will become bad as they stand on their feet. Their eyes will become bad and they will fall out. And their tongues will become bad in their mouths.

13 On that day, the LORD will make men so afraid that each man will attack the man next to him.

14 Judah also will go to Jerusalem and they will fight. They will take every good thing from all the countries. There will be a lot of expensive metals and many rich clothes.

15 The horses and all the other animals will be sick. And they will die as the soldiers died.

16 Some of the soldiers from the countries that attacked Jerusalem will not die. They will go to Jerusalem year after year to worship the King, the LORD Almighty. They will worship him at the Feast of Tabernacles. ^{▼▼14:16 During the Feast of Tabernacles, the Jews remember that the LORD was kind to his people. The LORD was kind to his people when they left Egypt many years ago.}

17 All the people on the earth will have to go to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD Almighty. If any people on the earth do not go, they will have no rain.

18 If the people from Egypt do not go to Jerusalem to worship the LORD, they will have no rain. And the LORD will make them sick. If the people from other countries will not go to Jerusalem, the LORD will make them sick. They will die.

19 This will happen to the people from Egypt. This will happen to the people from all the countries that do not go up to Jerusalem at that time.

20 On that day, men will write the words, ‘This is for the LORD’ on the bells of the horses. The pots that anyone uses to cook with in the house of the LORD will be special. They will be as special as the dishes in front of the altar.

21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be for the LORD Almighty. All the people who come to offer animals to the LORD will cook in those pots. On that day, nobody who sells things will come into the house of the LORD Almighty.