Haftarah Portion for 07/15/2023

In Zechariah 14:1-19, it is prophesied that a day will come when Yahweh will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, houses plundered, and women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the remnant will remain. Yahweh will fight against the nations and his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, splitting it in two. People will flee to the valley, and there will be darkness but also light in the evening. Living waters will flow from Jerusalem, and Yahweh will be sovereign over the earth. Jerusalem will be inhabited and there will be no more destruction. Yahweh will plague those who fought against Jerusalem with decay and confusion. The wealth of the nations will be gathered. Those who survive will go to Jerusalem every year to worship Yahweh and celebrate the festival of Sukkot. If any clan does not come, there will be no rain and they Zechariah, chapter 14, verses 1 through 19. See, a day shall come for Yahweh, and your spoils shall be divided in your midst. And I shall gather all the nations to battle against Yerushalayim. And the cities shall be taken, the houses plundered, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into exile, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. And Yahweh shall go forth, and he shall fight against those nations, as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day his feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, which faces Yerushalayim on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, a very great valley. And half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And you shall flee to the valley of my mountain, for the valley of the mountains reaches to Atsal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, sovereign of Yehudah. And Yahweh my Elohim shall come, all to set apart ones with you. And in that day it shall be there is no light, it is dark. And it shall be one day which is known to Yahweh, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. And in that day it shall be that living waters flow from Yerushalayim, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea, in summer as well as in winter. And Yahweh shall be sovereign over all the earth. In that day there shall be one Yahweh, and his name one. All the land shall be changed into a desert plain, from Geva to Rimmon, south of Yerushalayim. And she shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benyamin's gate to the place of the first gate and the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the winepresses of the sovereign. And they shall dwell in her, and there shall be no more utter destruction, but Yerushalayim shall be safely inhabited. And this is the plague with which Yahweh plagues all the people who fought against Yerushalayim. Their flesh shall decay while they stand on their feet, and their eyes decay in their sockets, and their tongues decay in their mouths. And it shall be in that day that a great confusion from Yahweh is among them, and every one of them shall seize the hand of his neighbor, and his hand rise up against his neighbor's hand, and Yehudah shall fight at Yerushalayim as well. And the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, gold and silver and garments in great quantities. So also is the plague on the horse and the mule, on the camel and the donkey, and on all the cattle that are in those camps as this plague. And it shall be that all who are left from all the nations which came up against Yerushalayim shall go up from year to year to bow themselves to the sovereign Yahweh of hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. And it shall be that if any one of the clans of the earth does not come up to Yerushalayim to bow himself to the sovereign Yahweh of hosts, on them there is to be no rain. And if the clan of Mitzrayim does not come up and enter in, then there is no rain. On them is the plague with which Yahweh plagues the nations who do not come up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot. This is the punishment of Mitzrayim and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.