Elders, listen to this message. Listen to me, all you who live in the land. Nothing like this has ever happened during your lifetime or during your ancestors’ lifetimes.
The Lord will bring troubled times to you, your people, and to the people of your father’s family. They will be worse than anything that has happened since Israel separated from Judah. The Lord will bring the king of Assyria to fight against you.
This will be a terrible day! There will never be another time like this. This is a time of great trouble for the people of Jacob, but they will be saved from it.”
“At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will stand up. There will be a time of much trouble, the worst time since nations have been on earth, but your people will be saved. Everyone whose name is written in God’s book will be saved.
People of Israel, listen to the Lord’s message. The Lord has this against you who live in the land: “The people are not true, not loyal to God, nor do those who live in the land even know him.
“Listen, you priests. Pay attention, people of Israel. Listen, royal family, because you will all be judged. You have been like a trap at Mizpah and like a net spread out at Mount Tabor.
Call for a day when everyone fasts! Tell everyone to stop work! Bring the elders and everyone who lives in the land to the Temple of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
It will be a dark, gloomy day, cloudy and black. Like the light at sunrise, a great and powerful army will spread over the mountains. There has never been anything like it before, and there will never be anything like it again.
Listen to this message, you cows of Bashan on the Mountain of Samaria. You take things from the poor and crush people who are in need. Then you command your husbands, “Bring us something to drink!”
because at that time there will be much trouble. There will be more trouble than there has ever been since the beginning of the world until now, and nothing as bad will ever happen again.
“Every person who has ears should listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. To those who win the victory I will give the right to eat the fruit from the tree of life, which is in the garden of God.