This is what will happen all over the earth and to all the nations. The earth will be like an olive tree after the harvest or like the few grapes left on a vine after harvest.
At that time the Lord will begin gathering his people one by one from the Euphrates River to the brook of Egypt. He will separate them from others as grain is separated from chaff.
One-tenth of the people will be left in the land, but it will be destroyed again. These people will be like an oak tree whose stump is left when the tree is chopped down. The people who remain will be like a stump that will sprout again.”
A few will escape being killed by the sword and will come back to Judah from Egypt. Then, of the people of Judah who came to live in Egypt, those who are left alive will know if my word or their word came true.
“ ‘When you harvest your crops on your land, do not harvest all the way to the corners of your fields. If grain falls onto the ground, don’t gather it up.
“Yes, people of Jacob, I will bring all of you together; I will bring together all those left alive in Israel. I will put them together like sheep in a pen, like a flock in its pasture; the place will be filled with many people.
God has decided to make that terrible time short. Otherwise, no one would go on living. But God will make that time short to help the people he has chosen.
But you have a few there in Sardis who have kept their clothes unstained, so they will walk with me and will wear white clothes, because they are worthy.