6 “This is what Jehovah of armies says, ‘Although it may seem too difficult to the remaining ones of this people in those days, should it seem too difficult also to me?’ declares Jehovah of armies.”
9 “This is what Jehovah of armies says, ‘Let your hands be strong,*+ you who now hear these words from the mouth of the prophets,+ the same words that were spoken on the day the foundation of the house of Jehovah of armies was laid for the temple to be built. 10 For before that time, there were no wages being paid either for man or for beast;+ and it was not safe to come and go because of the adversary, for I turned all men one against another.’
11 “‘But now I will not deal with the remaining ones of this people as in the former days,’+ declares Jehovah of armies. 12 ‘For the seed of peace will be sown; the vine will produce its fruit and the earth its yield,+ and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remaining ones of this people to inherit all these things.+ 13 And just as you became an object of cursing among the nations,+ O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will become a blessing.+ Do not be afraid!+ Let your hands be strong.’*+
18 The word of Jehovah of armies again came to me, saying: 19 “This is what Jehovah of armies says, ‘The fast of the fourth month,+ the fast of the fifth month,+ the fast of the seventh month,+ and the fast of the tenth month+ will be occasions for exultation and joy for the house of Judah—festivals of rejoicing.+So love truth and peace.’
20 “This is what Jehovah of armies says, ‘It will yet come to pass that peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will come; 21 and the inhabitants of one city will go to those of another and say: “Let us earnestly go to beg for the favor* of Jehovah and to seek Jehovah of armies. I am also going.”+ 22 And many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek Jehovah of armies in Jerusalem+ and to beg for the favor* of Jehovah.’
23 “This is what Jehovah of armies says, ‘In those days ten men out of all the languages of the nations+ will take hold, yes, they will take firm hold of the robe*of a Jew,* saying: “We want to go with you,+ for we have heard that God is with you people.”’”+
9 A pronouncement:
“The word of Jehovah is against the land of Ha′drach,
—For Jehovah’s eye is on mankind+
And on all the tribes of Israel—
She piled up silver like dust
And gold like the dirt of the streets.+
5 Ash′ke·lon will see it and be afraid;
Gaz′a will feel great anguish,
Also Ek′ron, because her hope is put to shame.
A king will perish from Gaz′a,
And Ash′ke·lon will not be inhabited.+
6 An illegitimate son will settle in Ash′dod,
And I will do away with the pride of the Phi·lis′tine.+
7 I will remove the bloodstained things from his mouth
And the disgusting things from between his teeth,
And he will be left remaining for our God;
And Ek′ron like the Jeb′u·site.+
So that there will be no one passing through and no one returning;
For now I have seen it* with my eyes.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Look! Your king is coming to you.+
10 I will take away the war chariot from E′phra·im
And the horse from Jerusalem.
The battle bow will be taken away.
And he will proclaim peace to the nations;+
His rulership will be from sea to sea
11 As for you, O woman, by the blood of your covenant,
I will send your prisoners out of the waterless pit.+
Today I am telling you,
‘I will repay to you, O woman, a double portion.+
The bow I will fill with E′phra·im,*
And I will awaken your sons, O Zion,
Against your sons, O Greece,
And I will make you like a warrior’s sword.’
14 Jehovah will be seen over them,
And his arrow will go out like lightning.
The Sovereign Lord Jehovah will sound the horn,+
And he will advance with the windstorms of the south.
They will drink and be boisterous, as if with wine;
And they will be filled like the bowl,
Like the corners of the altar.+
Grain will make the young men thrive,
And new wine the virgins.”+
It is Jehovah who makes the storm clouds,
Who pours rain for them,+
And gives vegetation in the field to everyone.
They speak about worthless dreams,
And in vain they try to comfort.
That is why they will wander like sheep.
They will suffer, for there is no shepherd.
3 Against the shepherds my anger burns,
And against the oppressive leaders* I will hold an accounting;
For Jehovah of armies has turned his attention to his flock,+ to the house of Judah,
And he has made them like his majestic horse in the battle.
From him comes the supporting ruler,*
From him comes the battle bow;
From him goes forth every overseer,* all of them together.
5 And they will become like warriors,
Trampling down the mud of the streets in the battle.
I will restore them,
For I will show them mercy;+
And they will be as though I had never cast them off;+
For I am Jehovah their God, and I will answer them.
7 Those of E′phra·im must become like a mighty warrior,
And their heart will rejoice as though from wine.+
Their sons will see this and rejoice;
Their heart will be joyful in Jehovah.+
8 ‘I will whistle for them and gather them together;
For I will redeem them,+ and they will become many,
And continue to be many.
9 Though I scatter them like seed among the peoples,
They will remember me in the distant places;
With their sons they will revive and return.
10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt
And gather them from As·syr′i·a;+
I will bring them to the land of Gil′e·ad+ and Leb′a·non,
And there will be no more room for them.+
11 He must pass through the sea with distress;
And in the sea he will strike down the waves;+
All the depths of the Nile will dry up.
The pride of As·syr′i·a will be brought down,
And the scepter of Egypt will depart.+
And they will walk about in his name,’+ declares Jehovah.”
So that a fire may consume your cedars.
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
The majestic trees have been destroyed!
Wail, you oaks of Ba′shan,
For the dense forest has come down!
3 Listen! The wailing of shepherds,
For their majesty has been devastated.
Listen! The roaring of young lions,*
For the dense thickets along the Jordan have been destroyed.
6 “‘For I will no longer show compassion on the inhabitants of the land,’ declares Jehovah. ‘So I will cause each man to fall into the hand of his neighbor and his king; and they will crush the land, and I will not rescue them out of their hand.’”
7 And I began to shepherd the flock meant for slaughter,+ in your behalf, O afflicted ones of the flock. So I took two staffs, and I called one Pleasantness, and the other Union,+ and I began to shepherd the flock. 8 And I dismissed three shepherds in one month, for I* became impatient with them, and they* detested me as well. 9 And I said: “I will not keep shepherding you. Let the one who is dying die, and let the one perishing perish. As for those who are left, let them devour one another’s flesh.” 10 So I took my staff Pleasantness+ and cut it up, breaking my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was broken in that day, and the afflicted ones of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of Jehovah.
15 And Jehovah said to me: “Now take the equipment of a useless shepherd.+16 For I am letting a shepherd rise up in the land. He will not take care of the sheep that are perishing;+ he will not seek out the young or heal the injured+ or feed those able to stand. Instead, he devours the flesh of the fat one+ and tears off the hooves of the sheep.+
A sword will strike his arm and his right eye.
His arm will wither completely,
And his right eye will go completely blind.”*
12 A pronouncement:
“The word of Jehovah concerning Israel,” declares Jehovah,
The One who stretched out the heavens,+
Who laid the foundation of the earth,+
And who formed the spirit* of man within him.
2 “Here I am making Jerusalem a cup* that causes all the surrounding peoples to stagger; and there will be a siege against Judah as well as against Jerusalem.+3 In that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy* stone to all the peoples. All those who lift it are sure to be severely injured;+ and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against her.+ 4 In that day,” declares Jehovah, “I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. I will keep my eyes on the house of Judah, but I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 And the sheikhs* of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to me by means of Jehovah of armies their God.’+ 6 In that day I will make the sheikhs of Judah like a fiery pot among wood and like a fiery torch in a row of cut grain,+and they will consume all the surrounding peoples on the right and on the left;+and Jerusalem will again be inhabited in her place,* in Jerusalem.+
7 “And Jehovah will save the tents of Judah first, so that the beauty* of the house of David and the beauty* of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be too great over Judah. 8 In that day Jehovah will be a defense around the inhabitants of Jerusalem;+ in that day the one who stumbles* among them will be like David, and the house of David like God, like Jehovah’s angel who goes before them.+9 And in that day I will be certain to annihilate all the nations that come against Jerusalem.+
10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of favor and supplication, and they will look to the one whom they pierced,+ and they will wail over him as they would wail over an only son; and they will grieve bitterly over him as they would grieve over a firstborn son. 11 In that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be great, like the wailing at Ha·dad·rim′mon in the Plain of Me·gid′do.+ 12 And the land will wail, each family by itself; the family of David’s house by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of Nathan’s+ house by itself, and their women by themselves; 13 the family of Le′vi’s+ house by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the Shim′e·ites+ by itself, and their women by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left remaining, each family by itself, and their women by themselves.
2 “In that day,” declares Jehovah of armies, “I will erase the names of the idols from the land,+ and they will no longer be remembered; and I will rid the land of the prophets+ and the spirit of uncleanness. 3 And if a man should prophesy again, his father and his mother who caused his birth will say to him, ‘You will not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of Jehovah.’ And his father and his mother who caused his birth will pierce him through because of his prophesying.+
4 “In that day each of the prophets will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; and they will not wear an official garment of hair+ in order to deceive.5 And he will say, ‘I am no prophet. I am a man cultivating the soil, because a man bought me when I was young.’ 6 And if someone asks him, ‘What are these wounds between your shoulders?’* he will answer, ‘Wounds I received in the house of my friends.’”*
Against the man who is my companion,” declares Jehovah of armies.
And I will turn my hand against those who are insignificant.”
8 “And in all the land,” declares Jehovah,
“Two parts in it will be cut off and perish;*
And the third part will be left remaining in it.
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire;
And I will refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.+
They will call on my name,
And I will answer them.
I will say, ‘They are my people,’+
And they will say, ‘Jehovah is our God.’”
14 “Look! The day is coming, a day belonging to Jehovah, when the spoil from you* will be divided in your midst. 2 I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for the war; and the city will be captured and the houses plundered and the women raped. And half of the city will go into exile, but the remaining ones of the people will not be cut off from the city.
3 “Jehovah will go out and war against those nations+ as when he fights in the day of a battle.+ 4 In that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,+ which faces Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in half, from east* to west,* forming a very great valley; and half of the mountain will move to the north, and half of it to the south. 5 You will flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains will extend all the way to A′zel. You will have to flee, just as you fled because of the earthquake in the days of King Uz·zi′ah of Judah.+ And Jehovah my God will come, and all the holy ones will be with him.+
6 “In that day there will be no precious light+—things will be congealed.*7 And it will become one day that is known as belonging to Jehovah.+ It will not be day, nor will it be night; and at evening time there will be light. 8 In that day living waters+ will flow out from Jerusalem,+ half of them toward the eastern sea*+ and half of them toward the western sea.*+ It will happen in summer and in winter. 9 And Jehovah will be King over all the earth.+ In that day Jehovah will be one,+ and his name one.+
10 “The whole land will become like the Ar′a·bah,+ from Ge′ba+ to Rim′mon+south of Jerusalem; and she will rise and be inhabited in her place,+ from the Gate of Benjamin+ all the way to the site of the First Gate, all the way to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Ha·nan′el+ all the way to the winepresses* of the king. 11 And people will inhabit her; and there will never again be a curse of destruction,+ and Jerusalem will be inhabited in security.+
13 “In that day confusion from Jehovah will be widespread among them; and each one will grab hold of the hand of his companion, and his hand will come against the hand of his companion.*+ 14 Judah will also be involved in the war at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in vast quantity.+
15 “And a scourge like that scourge will also come against the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and all the livestock that are in those camps.
16 “Everyone who is left remaining out of all the nations that come against Jerusalem will go up from year to year+ to bow down to* the King, Jehovah of armies,+ and to celebrate the Festival of Booths.*+ 17 But if anyone among the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies, no rain will fall on them.+ 18 And if the family of Egypt does not come up and does not come in, they will have no rain. Instead, they will have the scourge with which Jehovah scourges the nations that do not come up to celebrate the Festival of Booths. 19 This will be the punishment for the sin of Egypt and the sin of all the nations that do not come up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.
20 “In that day the words ‘Holiness belongs to Jehovah!’+ will be written on the bells of the horses. And the cooking pots*+ in the house of Jehovah will be like the bowls+ before the altar. 21 And every cooking pot* in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy and will belong to Jehovah of armies, and all those who are sacrificing will come in and use some of them for boiling. In that day there will no longer be a Ca′naan·ite* in the house of Jehovah of armies.”+
In 2003, an international archeology team was excavating the Liang Bua limestone cave (pictured above) on the Indonesian island of Flores, between Sumatra and East Timor. At a six meters depth, they unearthed the skeleton of a tiny ancient woman, about thirty years old. She was a meter in height (a little over a yard), with the brain capacity of a small chimpanzee.