For mortal are her wounds, For it hath come unto Judah, It hath come to a gate of My people -- to Jerusalem.

For stayed for good hath the inhabitant of Maroth, For evil hath come down from Jehovah to the gate of Jerusalem.

Building up Zion with blood, And Jerusalem with iniquity.

Therefore, for your sake, Zion is ploughed a field, and Jerusalem is heaps, And the mount of the house is for high places of a forest!

And gone have many nations and said, Come and we go up to the mount of Jehovah, And unto the house of the God of Jacob, And He doth teach us of His ways, And we do walk in His paths, For from Zion doth go forth a law, And a word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

And thou, O tower of Eder, Fort of the daughter of Zion, unto thee it cometh, Yea, come in hath the former rule, The kingdom to the daughter of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, why are you now shouting so loudly? Has your king disappeared? Has your wise leader been destroyed? Is this why pain grips you as if you were a woman in labor?

Many nations have now assembled against you. They say, "Jerusalem must be desecrated, so we can gloat over Zion!"

The voice of the Lord shall call to the city [of Jerusalem]—
And it is sound wisdom to heed [solemnly] and fear Your name [with awe-filled reverence];
“Hear, O tribe [the rod of punishment]. Who has appointed its time?

This is what the Lord says,

“Though they are at full strength and many in number,
Even so, they will be cut off and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you and caused you grief [O Jerusalem],
I will afflict you no longer.

And stretched out My hand against Judah, And against all inhabiting Jerusalem, And cut off from this place the remnant of Baal, The name of the idolatrous priests, with the priests,

“On that day,” declares the Lord,
“There will be the sound of crying from the Fish (Damascus) Gate [in the northern wall of Jerusalem where invaders enter]
And wailing from the Second Quarter [of the city],
And a loud crash from the hills.

And it hath come to pass, at that time, I search Jerusalem with lights, And I have laid a charge on the men Who are hardened on their preserved things, Who are saying in their heart: Jehovah doth no good, nor doth He evil.

Woe (judgment is coming) to her who is rebellious and defiled,
The tyrannical city [Jerusalem]!

“I said, ‘Most certainly you will [reverently] fear Me;
Accept correction.’
So Jerusalem’s dwelling will not be cut off
In accordance with all that I have appointed concerning her [punishment],
But they were eager [even rising early] to make all their deeds corrupt.

Cry aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout, O Israel, Rejoice and exult with the whole heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

In that day it is said to Jerusalem, 'Fear not, O Zion, let not thy hands be feeble.

“I will gather those [Israelites in captivity] who grieve about the appointed feasts—
They came from you, [O Zion];
On whom the reproach [of exile] is a burden.

In the second year of Darius the king [of Persia], on the first day of the sixth month (Aug 29, 520 b.c.), the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

And the messenger of Jehovah answereth and saith, 'Jehovah of Hosts! till when dost Thou not pity Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, that Thou hast abhorred these seventy years?'

And the messenger who is speaking with me, saith unto me, 'Call, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: I have been zealous for Jerusalem, and for Zion with great zeal.

Therefore, thus says Yahweh: "I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion. My temple will be built in it," {declares} Yahweh of hosts, "and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem." '

Proclaim again, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "My cities shall again overflow from prosperity, and Yahweh will comfort Zion again, and he will choose Jerusalem again." '"

And I said to the angel [who was] talking with me, "What [are] these?" And he said to me, "These [are] the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

And I asked, "Where [are] you going?" And he answered me, "To measure Jerusalem to see what [is] its width and what [is] its length."

And he said to him, "Run, say to that young man, 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited {like villages without walls} because of the multitude of people and animals in its midst.

But I (the Lord says) will be a wall of fire surrounding Jerusalem and the source of glory in her midst.'"

And Yahweh will inherit Judah [as] his portion {in the holy land}, and he will again choose Jerusalem.

But Yahweh said to Satan, "Yahweh rebukes you, O Satan! Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! [Is] this not a stick snatched from the fire?"

[Are] not [these] the words that Yahweh proclaimed {through} the former prophets, when Jerusalem and {its surrounding towns} were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?'"

Thus says Yahweh: 'I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem will be called the faithful city, and the mountain of Yahweh of hosts [will be called] the holy mountain.'

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the public squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand {because of great age}.

and I will bring them and they will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They will be my people and I will be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness.'

{so again I have planned} in these days to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Do not be afraid!

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘It will come to pass that peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will come [to Jerusalem].

And many peoples and powerful nations will come to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat {the favor of} Yahweh.'

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In the future, ten men speaking all the languages of the nations will grab hold of one Jewish person by the hem of his garment and say, "Let us go up to Jerusalem with you, because we heard that God is with you."'"

And I will take away his blood from his mouth, and his disgusting things from between his teeth; and some of his people will be kept for our God: and he will be as a family in Judah, and Ekron as one living in Jerusalem.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Look! Your king comes to you; he [is] righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, and on a male donkey, {the foal of} a female donkey!

And I will cut off [the] chariot from Ephraim, and [the] horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow will be cut down, and he will announce peace to the nations. His dominion [will be] from sea to sea, and from [the] River to [the] ends of [the] earth.

'Look, I [am] going to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding nations; it will also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.

{And then} on that day I will make Jerusalem a stone weight for all the peoples. All those lifting it up will grievously hurt themselves, and all the nations of the earth will assemble against it.

In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with panic and his rider with madness; but I will open My eyes and watch over the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the [opposing] nations with blindness.

And the clans of Judah will say {to themselves}, "The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to us, through Yahweh of hosts, their God."

" 'On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a pan of fire among [sticks of] wood, and like a torch of fire among stalks of grain, and they will devour to [the] right and to [the] left all the surrounding peoples, and Jerusalem will be inhabited again [in] its place, in Jerusalem.

And Yahweh will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over Judah.

On that day Yahweh will put a shield around the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who stumbles among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David [will be] like God, like the angel of Yahweh, {before them}.

{And then} on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations coming against Jerusalem.

" 'I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as [one] grieves bitterly over a firstborn.

On that day the wailing will be great in Jerusalem, like the wailing for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

At that time, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for those who live in Jerusalem so they can be cleansed from sin and ceremonial impurity.

" 'On that day a well will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, {to cleanse them from sin and from impurity}.

I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, and they will loot the houses, and the women will be raped; half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city.

On that day his feet will stand on {the Mount of Olives}, which faces Jerusalem on [the] east; and {the Mount of Olives} will be split {in half}, from east to west, [by] a very great valley; and half of the mountain will withdraw toward the north, and the other half toward the south.

{And then} on that day, living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and the other half to the western sea; it will happen [both] in the summer and in the winter.

All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it will rise up high and it will stay in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of [the] former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

And they will dwell in it, and {there will be no more ban imposed}, and Jerusalem will dwell in security.

And this will be the plague [with] which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they [are] standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

And Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected--gold and silver, and garments {in great abundance}.

{And then} every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship [the] king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths.

{And then} whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them.

If the people of Egypt do not come to Jerusalem to take part, they will have no annual Nile overflow. A plague will come from the LORD to strike the nations who do not come to observe the Festival of Tents.

And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a {trader} in the house of Yahweh of hosts on that day.

Judah has been faithless, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. Judah has profaned the sanctuary of Yahweh which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh, like [in the] days of old and like [in] former years.

Now [after] Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,

And [when] King Herod heard [it], he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him,

[Jer. 31:15], "A voice was heard in [the town of] Ramah [Note: This was a village near Jerusalem, where Rachel was buried], with crying and deep mourning. It was Rachel crying for her children [Note: Initially this was a reference to the Israelites who were taken to Babylonian captivity. See Jer. 29-31]. She refused to be comforted because they were dead."

Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan were going out to him,

then the devil took Jesus with him to Jerusalem, and having set him on the wing of the temple, he said to him,

And large crowds followed him from Galilee, Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from the other side of the Jordan.

or by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king.

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,

From that time [on] Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many [things] from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.

And [as] Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples by themselves and said to them on the way,

"Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death,

As they [i.e., the twelve apostles and Jesus] were leaving Jericho [Note: This was a town about eighteen miles northeast of Jerusalem], a huge crowd followed them.

And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,

[Zech. 9:9], 'You should tell the daughter of Zion [i.e., the people of Jerusalem], look, your King is coming to you. He is gentle and [will be] riding on a donkey, [even] on a colt, the offspring of the donkey.'"

And [when] he entered into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?"

He then left them and went out of the city [of Jerusalem] to Bethany [Note: This was a small village near Bethphage] and stayed there [i.e., probably at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. See John 11:1].

Now in the morning, as Jesus returned to the city [of Jerusalem], He became hungry.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, putting to death the prophets, and stoning those who are sent to her! Again and again would I have taken your children to myself as a bird takes her young ones under her wings, and you would not!

And you will hear of wars [going on] and rumors of [other] wars [pending]. Do not worry, for such things must necessarily happen. But the end has not yet come. [Note: By "the end" here Jesus probably alludes to the downfall of Jerusalem, in AD 70, with its attending destruction of the Temple buildings].

And this good news concerning the kingdom [of heaven] will be preached to people throughout the world as a testimony [of God's message] to all nations. Then, [after that] the end [i.e., of Jerusalem, the Temple, etc.] will come.

"Therefore, when you see that disgusting thing which causes total destruction [i.e., the Roman armies. See Luke 21:20], which Daniel the prophet spoke about [Dan. 9:27; 11:31; 12:11], standing in the sacred place [i.e., Jerusalem and especially the Temple area], (let the reader understand [what is meant by this]),

Now when Jesus was at Bethany [Note: This was a small village less than two miles east of Jerusalem], in the house of Simon, the man [who probably had been healed] of an infectious skin disease,

He answered, "Go into the city [i.e., Jerusalem] to a certain man and say to him, 'The Teacher says, My time is near [i.e., to be turned over to the Jewish leaders]; I plan to observe the Passover Festival at your house with my disciples.'"

And after they had sung a hymn, they went up to the Mount of Olives. [Note: This was a small hill just east of Jerusalem]

Then Jesus came with His disciples to a place called Gethsemene. [Note: This was an olive orchard on a hillside just east of Jerusalem]. He said to them, "You sit here while I go over there and pray."

As they were leaving [i.e., probably the city of Jerusalem], they met a man from Cyrene [Note: This was a city in the northern African country of Libya]. His name was Simon and they forced him to go with them so he could carry Jesus' cross [i.e., probably only the cross-beam portion].

They came out of their graves after Jesus' resurrection and entered the holy city [i.e., Jerusalem] where they appeared to many people.

And all the Judean region and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem went out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.

And from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and the other side of Jordan, and the country about Tyre and Sidon, a great number, hearing what great things he did, came to him.

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem, said, He has Beelzebub, and, By the ruler of evil spirits he sends evil spirits out of men.

And there came together to him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem,

miles northeast of Jerusalem]. As He left there with His disciples and a large crowd, they met a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sitting along side the road.

And they were on the way, going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus was going before them: and they were full of wonder; but those who came after him were in fear. And again he took the twelve, and gave them word of the things which were to come on him,

Saying, See, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be given up to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will give an order for his death, and will give him up to the Gentiles:

And when they came near to Jerusalem, to Beth-phage and Bethany, at the Mountain of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,