Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza will be in great anguish, as will Ekron, for her hope will have been dried up. ¹  Gaza will lose her king, and Ashkelon will no longer be inhabited.

Then I will bring the remaining third into the fire; I will refine them like silver is refined and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” ¹ 

A mongrel people will live in Ashdod, for I will greatly humiliate the Philistines.

And I will bring them to settle within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, ¹  in truth and righteousness.’

Nevertheless the Lord will evict her and shove her fortifications ¹  into the sea – she will be consumed by fire.

Then the Lord will appear above them, and his arrow will shoot forth like lightning; the Lord God will blow the trumpet and will sally forth on the southern storm winds.

The Lord ¹  will cross the sea of storms and will calm its turbulence. The depths of the Nile will dry up, the pride of Assyria will be humbled, and the domination ²  of Egypt will be no more.

Thus I will strengthen them by my power, ¹  and they will walk about ²  in my name,” says the Lord.

And people will settle there, and there will no longer be the threat of divine extermination – Jerusalem will dwell in security.

The Ephraimites will be like warriors and will rejoice as if they had drunk wine. Their children will see it and rejoice; they will celebrate in the things of the Lord.

I will bend Judah as my bow; I will load the bow with Ephraim, my arrow! ¹  I will stir up your sons, Zion, against yours, Greece, and I will make you, Zion, ²  like a warrior’s sword.

The Lord who rules over all will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink, and will become noisy like drunkards, ¹  full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar. ² 

In that day,” says the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with madness. I will pay close attention to the house of Judah, but will strike all the horses ¹  of the nations ²  with blindness.

On that day there will be no light – the sources of light in the heavens will congeal. ¹ 

The Lord will take possession of ¹  Judah as his portion in the holy land and he will choose Jerusalem once again.

And they will be like warriors trampling the mud of the streets in battle. They will fight, for the Lord will be with them, and will defeat the enemy cavalry. ¹ 

But this will be the nature of the plague with which the Lord will strike all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will decay while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongues will dissolve in their mouths.

I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. ¹  I will bring them to the lands of Gilead and Lebanon, for there will not be enough room for them in their own land.

Moreover, on that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy burden ¹  for all the nations, and all who try to carry it will be seriously injured; ²  yet all the peoples of the earth will be assembled against it.

“I (says the Lord) will strengthen the kingdom ¹  of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph ²  and will bring them back ³  because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and therefore I will hear them.