Zechariah 13; Zechariah 14; Revelation 21

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Zechariah 13

1 "When that time comes," says the Lord Almighty, "a fountain will be opened to purify the descendants of David and the people of Jerusalem from their sin and idolatry.
2 At that time I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and no one will remember them any more. I will get rid of anyone who claims to be a prophet and will take away the desire to worship idols.
3 Then if anyone still insists on prophesying, his own father and mother will tell him that he must be put to death, because he claimed to speak the Lord's word, but spoke lies instead. When he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him to death.
4 When that time comes, no prophet will be proud of his visions or act like a prophet or wear a prophet's coarse garment in order to deceive people.
5 Instead, he will say, "I am not a prophet. I am a farmer - I have farmed the land all my life.'
6 Then if someone asks him, "What are those wounds on your chest?' he will answer, "I got them at a friend's house.' "
7 The Lord Almighty says, "Wake up, sword, and attack the shepherd who works for me! Kill him, and the sheep will be scattered. I will attack my people
8 and throughout the land two-thirds of the people will die.
9 And I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Zechariah 14

1 The day when the Lord will sit in judgment is near. Then Jerusalem will be looted, and the loot will be divided up before your eyes.
2 The Lord will bring all the nations together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken away from the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.
4 At that time he will stand on the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west by a large valley. Half of the mountain will move northward, and half of it southward.
5 You will escape through this valley that divides the mountain in two. You will flee as your ancestors did when the earthquake struck in the time of King Uzziah of Judah. The Lord my God will come, bringing all the angels with him.
6 When that time comes, there will no longer be cold or frost,
7 nor any darkness. There will always be daylight, even at nighttime. When this will happen is known only to the Lord.
8 When that day comes, fresh water will flow from Jerusalem, half of it to the Dead Sea and the other half to the Mediterranean. It will flow all year long, in the dry season as well as the wet.
9 Then the Lord will be king over all the earth; everyone will worship him as God and know him by the same name.
10 The whole region, from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the south, will be made level. Jerusalem will tower above the land around it; the city will reach from the Benjamin Gate to the Corner Gate, where there had been an earlier gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal wine presses.
11 The people will live there in safety, no longer threatened by destruction.
12 The Lord will bring a terrible disease on all the nations that make war on Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot away while they are still alive; their eyes and their tongues will rot away.
13 At that time the Lord will make them so confused and afraid that everyone will seize the man next to him and attack him.
14 The men of Judah will fight to defend Jerusalem. They will take as loot the wealth of all the nations - gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.
15 A terrible disease will also fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, and the donkeys - on all the animals in the camps of the enemy.
16 Then all of the survivors from the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go there each year to worship the Lord Almighty as king and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.
17 If any nation refuses to go and worship the Lord Almighty as king, then rain will not fall on their land.
18 If the Egyptians refuse to celebrate the Festival of Shelters, then they will be struck by the same disease that the Lord will send on every nation that refuses to go.
19 This will be the punishment that will fall on Egypt and on all the other nations if they do not celebrate the Festival of Shelters.
20 At that time even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with the words "Dedicated to the Lord." The cooking pots in the Temple will be as sacred as the bowls before the altar.
21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in all Judah will be set apart for use in the worship of the Lord Almighty. The people who offer sacrifices will use them for boiling the meat of the sacrifices. When that time comes, there will no longer be any merchant in the Temple of the Lord Almighty.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Revelation 21

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared, and the sea vanished.
2 And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared and ready, like a bride dressed to meet her husband.
3 I heard a loud voice speaking from the throne: "Now God's home is with people! He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be their God.
4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared."
5 Then the one who sits on the throne said, "And now I make all things new!" He also said to me, "Write this, because these words are true and can be trusted."
6 And he said, "It is done! I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end. To anyone who is thirsty I will give the right to drink from the spring of the water of life without paying for it.
7 Those who win the victory will receive this from me: I will be their God, and they will be my children.
8 But cowards, traitors, perverts, murderers, the immoral, those who practice magic, those who worship idols, and all liars - the place for them is the lake burning with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to me and said, "Come, and I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."
10 The Spirit took control of me, and the angel carried me to the top of a very high mountain. He showed me Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming down out of heaven from God
11 and shining with the glory of God. The city shone like a precious stone, like a jasper, clear as crystal.
12 It had a great, high wall with twelve gates and with twelve angels in charge of the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of the people of Israel.
13 There were three gates on each side: three on the east, three on the south, three on the north, and three on the west.
14 The city's wall was built on twelve foundation stones, on which were written the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15 The angel who spoke to me had a gold measuring stick to measure the city, its gates, and its wall.
16 The city was perfectly square, as wide as it was long. The angel measured the city with his measuring stick: it was fifteen hundred miles long and was as wide and as high as it was long.
17 The angel also measured the wall, and it was 216 feet high, according to the standard unit of measure which he was using.
18 The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself was made of pure gold, as clear as glass.
19 The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with all kinds of precious stones. The first foundation stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald,
20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh yellow quartz, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chalcedony, the eleventh turquoise, the twelfth amethyst.
21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate was made from a single pearl. The street of the city was of pure gold, transparent as glass.
22 I did not see a temple in the city, because its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.
23 The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God shines on it, and the Lamb is its lamp.
24 The peoples of the world will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their wealth into it.
25 The gates of the city will stand open all day; they will never be closed, because there will be no night there.
26 The greatness and the wealth of the nations will be brought into the city.
27 But nothing that is impure will enter the city, nor anyone who does shameful things or tells lies. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of the living will enter the city.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.