1 Watch out! For the day of the Lord is coming when what has been plundered from you will be divided up right in front of you. 2 I will bring together all the nations to attack Jerusalem. The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.

3 Then the Lord will go out to fight against the nations as he fights in times of war. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which faces Jerusalem to the east. The Mount of Olives will split apart, with half moving north and half moving south, creating a wide valley from east to west. 5 You will run away through this mountain valley for it will reach as far as Azal.* If this is a place name its location is unknown. You will run away like people did at the time of the earthquake during the reign of Uzzah, king of Judah. Then the Lord will come, accompanied by all his holy ones. 6 On that day there will be no longer cold and frost.† The words used here and their meaning are debated. 7 It will be one continuous day (only the Lord knows how this could happen). It won't be day or night, because in the evening it will still be light.

8 On that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of it going east to the Dead Sea and half going west to the Mediterranean Sea, flowing in summer and winter alike. 9 The Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one true Lord, and his name the only one. 10 The whole land will be transformed into a plain, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem.‡ This indicates the whole of the land of Judah. But Jerusalem will be raised up to where it was, and people will live there from the Benjamin Gate to where the old gate was, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.§ This would include the whole of the old city of Jerusalem. 11 It will be inhabited and never again condemned to destruction again—people will be able to live in safety in Jerusalem. 12 This will be the plague that the Lord will use to strike all the nations that attacked Jerusalem. Their flesh shall rot while they are still standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets; their tongues will rot in their mouths.

13 On that day the Lord will strike them with a terrible panic, and they will seize one another, and fight hand-to-hand. 14 Even Judah will fight in* Septuagint reading. Hebrew “against.” Jerusalem. The wealth of the surrounding nations shall be collected: lots of gold, silver, and clothes. 15 A similar plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all other animals that may be in their camps.

16 After this every one of the survivors from the nations that attacked Jerusalem will go there to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 17 If any of the peoples of the world refuse to go to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain. 18 If the Egyptian people refuse to go and attend, then the Lord will inflict on them the same plague as on the other nations who will not go celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 19 This will be the punishment on Egypt and all the nations if they do not go to Jerusalem and celebrate.

20 On that day the bells worn by horses will be engraved with the words “Holy to the Lord.” The household cooking pots used in the Lord's Temple will be as holy as the bowls used on the altar in the presence of the Lord. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord Almighty, so that everyone who comes to sacrifice can take them and cook their sacrificial meat in them.† These verses suggest that so many will come to worship the Lord in Jerusalem that every cooking pot will need to be used in the sacrificial system. On that day there will no longer be traders in the Lord's Temple.