1AN ORACLE. This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel, the very word of the LORD who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth, and who formed the spirit of man within him: 2I am making the steep approaches to Jerusalem slippery for all the nations pressing round her; and Judah will be caught up in the siege of Jerusalem. 3On that day, when all the nations of the earth will be gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem a rock too heavy for any people to remove, and all who try to lift it shall injure themselves. 4On that day, says the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness; I will keep watch over Judah, but I will strike all the horses of the other nations with blindness. 5Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem find their strength in the LORD of Hosts their God.'
6On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a brazier in woodland, like a torch blazing among sheaves of corn. They shall devour all the nations round them, right and left, while the people of Jerusalem remain safe in their city. 7The LORD will first set free all the families of Judah, so that the glory of David's line and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.
8On that day the LORD will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem; on that day the very weakest of them shall be like David, and the line of David like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.
9On that day I will set about destroying all the nations that come against Jerusalem, 10but I will pour a spirit of pity and compassion into the line of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Then
11On that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall be as great as the mourning over Hadad-rimmon in the vale of Megiddo. 12The land shall wail, each family by itself: the family of David by itself and its women by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself and its women by themselves; 13the family of Levi by itself and its women by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself and its women by themselves; 14all the remaining families by themselves and their women by themselves.
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