1: War Bulletin: GOD's Message challenges the country of Hadrach. It will settle on Damascus. The whole world has its eyes on GOD. Israel isn't the only one.
2: That includes Hamath at the border, and Tyre and Sidon, clever as they think they are.
3: Tyre has put together quite a kingdom for herself; she has stacked up silver like cordwood, piled gold high as haystacks.
4: But God will certainly bankrupt her; he will dump all that wealth into the ocean and burn up what's left in a big fire.
5: Ashkelon will see it and panic, Gaza will wring its hands, Ekron will face a dead end. Gaza's king will die. Ashkelon will be emptied out,
6: And a villain will take over in Ashdod. "I'll take proud Philistia down a peg:
7: I'll make him spit out his bloody booty and abandon his vile ways." What's left will be all God's--a core of survivors, a family brought together in Judah--But enemies like Ekron will go the way of the Jebusites, into the dustbin of history.
8: "I will set up camp in my home country and defend it against invaders. Nobody is going to hurt my people ever again. I'm keeping my eye on them.
9: "Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion! Raise the roof, Daughter Jerusalem! Your king is coming! a good king who makes all things right, a humble king riding a donkey, a mere colt of a donkey.
10: I've had it with war--no more chariots in Ephraim, no more war horses in Jerusalem, no more swords and spears, bows and arrows. He will offer peace to the nations, a peaceful rule worldwide, from the four winds to the seven seas.
11: "And you, because of my blood covenant with you, I'll release your prisoners from their hopeless cells.
12: Come home, hope-filled prisoners! This very day I'm declaring a double bonus--everything you lost returned twice-over!
13: Judah is now my weapon, the bow I'll pull, setting Ephraim as an arrow to the string. I'll wake up your sons, O Zion, to counter your sons, O Greece. From now on people are my swords."
14: Then GOD will come into view, his arrows flashing like lightning! Master GOD will blast his trumpet and set out in a whirlwind.
15: GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies will protect them--all-out war, The war to end all wars, no holds barred.
16: Their GOD will save the day. He'll rescue them. They'll become like sheep, gentle and soft, Or like gemstones in a crown, catching all the colors of the sun.
17: Then how they'll shine! shimmer! glow! the young men robust, the young women lovely!