He fulfilled the words he spoke against us and against those who ruled us, by bringing upon us an evil—no evil so great has happened under heaven as happened in Jerusalem.
Give your servant, therefore, a listening heart to judge your people and to distinguish between good and evil. For who is able to give judgment for this vast people of yours?”
I confirm the words of my servant, carry out the plan my messengers announce. I say to Jerusalem, Be inhabited! To the cities of Judah, Be rebuilt! I will raise up their ruins.
They went in and took possession of it, but they did not listen to your voice. They did not live by your law; they did not do anything you commanded them to do. Then you made all this evil fall upon them.
Go, tell this to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: See, I am now carrying out my words against this city, for evil and not for good; this will happen in your presence on that day.
Because you offered sacrifice and sinned against the Lord, not listening to the voice of the Lord, not following his law, his statutes, and his decrees, therefore this evil has overtaken you, as it is today.
Come, all who pass by the way, pay attention and see: Is there any pain like my pain, which has been ruthlessly inflicted upon me, With which the Lord has tormented me on the day of his blazing wrath?
To what can I compare you—to what can I liken you— O daughter Jerusalem? What example can I give in order to comfort you, virgin daughter Zion? For your breach is vast as the sea; who could heal you?
The Lord has done what he planned. He has fulfilled the threat Decreed from days of old, destroying without pity! He let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.
False visions! Lying divinations! They say, “The oracle of the Lord,” even though the Lord did not send them. Then they expect their word to be confirmed!
“At that time there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people; It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since the nation began until that time. At that time your people shall escape, everyone who is found written in the book.
a day of darkness and gloom, a day of thick clouds! Like dawn spreading over the mountains, a vast and mighty army! Nothing like it has ever happened in ages past, nor will the future hold anything like it, even to the most distant generations.
But my words and my statutes, with which I charged my servants the prophets, did these not overtake your ancestors? Then they repented and admitted: “Just as the Lord of hosts intended to treat us according to our ways and deeds, so the Lord has done.” First Vision: Horses Patrolling the Earth.
I looked out in the night, and there was a man mounted on a red horse standing in the shadows among myrtle trees; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
And they made their hearts as hard as diamond so as not to hear the instruction and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. So great anger came from the Lord of hosts:
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.