Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.

But they do not know the Lord’s intentions
or understand His plan,
that He has gathered them
like sheaves to the threshing floor.

Get up and smash them to pieces, daughter of Zion, because I will make your horn like iron and your hooves like bronze! And you will beat many people to pieces, and I will consecrate their dishonest gain to the LORD and their assets to the Lord of the entire earth."

Then the remnant of Jacob
Shall be among many peoples
Like dew from the Lord,
Like showers on the grass [a source of blessing]
Which [come suddenly and] do not wait for man
Nor delay for the sons of men.

The remnant of Jacob
Shall be among the nations,
In the midst of many peoples
Like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
Like a young lion [suddenly appearing] among the flocks of sheep
Which, if he passes through,
Tramples down and tears into pieces [the nations in judgment],
And there is no one to rescue.

Woe is me! For I have become like the gatherings of summer, like the gleanings of the grape harvest, [when] there is no cluster of grapes to eat [or] early ripened fruit [that] my soul desires.

The best of them is [injurious] like a briar;
The most upright is [prickly] like a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen [that is, the time predicted by the prophets]
And your punishment comes;
Now shall be their confusion.

Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where [is] Yahweh your God?" My eyes will look upon her; now she will become a trampling place, like mud in the streets.

Marvelous things will I show them, like as when they came out of Egypt.

They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

Thou shalt keep thy trust with Jacob, and thy mercy for Abraham, like as thou hast sworn unto our fathers long ago.

He marches out in the whirlwind and the raging storm; dark storm clouds billow like dust under his feet.

Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

But like water overflowing he will take them away; he will put an end to those who come up against him, driving his haters into the dark.

For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble.

For Yahweh will restore the majesty of Jacob like the majesty of Israel; for ravagers have ravaged them and ruined [their] branches.

The shields of his soldiers [of Media and Babylon] are colored red;
The warriors are dressed in scarlet.
The chariots blaze with fire of [flashing] steel
When he is prepared to march,
And the cypress spears are brandished [for battle].

The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

It is decreed:
Nineveh is stripped, and she is carried away,
And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves,
Beating on their breasts [in sorrow].

But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.

"Because you have acted like a wanton prostitute -- a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, who enslaves nations by her harlotry, and entices peoples by her sorcery --

You also will behave like a drunkard; You also will hide yourself; You also will seek refuge from [the] enemy.

All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

Look! Your troops [are like] women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire will consume the bars [of your gates].

There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.

You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; [like] the locust they will shed [their skin] and fly away.

Your guardsmen are like the swarming locusts.
Your marshals are like the hordes of grasshoppers
Settling in the stone walls on a cold day.
When the sun rises, they fly away,
And no one knows the place where they are.

Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your officers are slumbering! Your people are scattered like sheep on the mountains and there is no one to regather them!

Your destruction is like an incurable wound; your demise is like a fatal injury! All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy, for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!

“Their horses are swifter than leopards
And keener than [hungry] wolves in the evening,
Their horsemen come galloping,
Their horsemen come from far away;
They fly like an eagle swooping down to devour.

“They all come for violence;
Their horde of faces moves [eagerly] forward,
They gather prisoners like sand.

“Then they will sweep by like the wind and pass on.
But they will be held guilty,
They [and all men] whose own power and strength is their god.”

Why do You make men like the fish of the sea,
Like reptiles and creeping things that have no ruler [and are helpless against their enemies]?

And moreover, the wine is treacherous: he is a proud man, and keepeth not at rest, he enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is like death and cannot be satisfied; and he assembleth unto him all nations, and gathereth unto him all peoples.

Will not your creditors suddenly be moved against you, and your troublers get up from their sleep, and you will be to them like goods taken in war?

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, like the waters covering the sea.

“You will be filled with disgrace instead of honor.
Now drink and expose your own nakedness!
The cup [of wrath] in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you [O destroyer],
And utter disgrace will be on your own glory.

"Woe to the one who says to a tree, "Wake up!' or "Arise!' to a speechless stone. Idols like this can't teach, can they? Look, even though it is overlaid with gold and silver, there's no breath in it at all."

His brightness is like the sunlight;
He has [bright] rays flashing from His hand,
And there [in the sunlike splendor] is the hiding place of His power.

Thou showedest thy bow openly, like as thou hadst promised with an oath unto the tribes. Selah. Thou didst divide the waters of the earth.

Sun, moon, have stood still, on high, - like light, thine arrows, speed along, like brightness, is the flash of thy spear.

You pierced the head of his warriors with his own arrows; they came like a whirlwind to scatter me, their exultation like [one who] devours the afflicted in ambush.

The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

“Wail [in anguish], you inhabitants of the Mortar (Valley of Siloam),
For all the merchants of Canaan will be silenced and destroyed;
All who weigh out silver will be cut off.

“It will come about at that time
That I will search Jerusalem with lamps
And I will punish the men
Who [like old wine] are stagnant in spirit,
Who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good, nor will He do evil.’

And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.

Bunch yourselves together like straw, you undesirable nation,

Before the decree takes effect [and the time for repentance is lost]—
The day passes like the chaff [whirled by the wind]—
Before the burning and fierce anger of the Lord comes upon you,
Before the day of the wrath of the Lord comes upon you.

“Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
The God of Israel,
“Moab will in fact become like Sodom
And the sons of Ammon like Gomorrah,
A land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
And a perpetual desolation.
The remnant of My people will plunder them
And what is left of My nation will inherit them [as their own].”

And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness.

Her rulers are like loud-voiced lions in her; her judges are wolves of the evening, crushing up the bones before the morning.

The Israelites who remain will not act deceitfully. They will not lie, and a deceitful tongue will not be found in their mouth. Indeed, they will graze peacefully like sheep and lie down; no one will terrify them."

Now when Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jozadak the high priest, with the remnant of the people, heard the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of the Prophet Haggai, like as the LORD their God had sent him, the people did fear the LORD.

'Who among you [is] left that saw this house in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it seem like nothing {to you}?

and do according to the word - for I am with you, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, like as I agreed with you when ye came out of the land of Egypt: and my spirit shall be among you, fear ye not.

On that day”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My servant”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and make you like My signet ring, for I have chosen you.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

"Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Return from your evil ways and your evil deeds!" ' But they did not hear and they did not pay attention to me," {declares} Yahweh.

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

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.

"Woe! Woe! Flee from [the] land of [the] north," {declares} Yahweh, "for I have scattered you like [the] four winds of the heavens," {declares} Yahweh.

The Lord said to Satan, "May the Lord rebuke you, Satan! May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Isn't this man like a burning stick snatched from the fire?"

And the angel who was speaking with me came back and awakened me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep.

And he will say to me, This the curse going forth upon the face of all the earth: for every one stealing from thence was empty like it; and every one swearing from this was empty like it

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.

They made their hearts like a rock so as not to obey the law or the words that the Lord of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of Hosts.

And it came to pass, like as he called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear, saith Jehovah of hosts;

And it shall come to pass, like as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear ye not, let your hands be strong.

For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Like as I thought to do you evil when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I repented not;

For Tyre built herself an [impregnable] stronghold [on an island offshore],
And she has heaped up silver like dust
And gold like the mire of the streets.

I will take the blood from their mouths
And their detestable things from between their teeth [those repulsive, idolatrous sacrifices eaten with the blood].
Then they too will be a remnant for our God,
And be like a clan in Judah,
And Ekron will be like one of the Jebusites.

But I will encamp at my temple [like a] guard, against those crossing through and returning; no oppressor will cross through them again, for now I have seen with my [own] eyes.

For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will raise up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and make thee like the sword of a mighty man.

Then Yahweh will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning; and my Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and he shall go out in the storm winds of [the] south.

The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.

And Yahweh their God will save them on that day, as the flock of his people; for [they are like] the stones of a diadem, glittering on his land.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

{My anger burns} against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, because Yahweh of hosts watches over his flock, the house of Judah; and he will make them like his majestic horse in war.

“They will be like mighty men
Trampling down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle;
And they will fight because the Lord is with them,
And the [enemies’] riders on horses will be shamed.

"I will comfort the house of Judah, and preserve the house of Joseph. I will turn them also, for I pity them: and they shall be like as they were, when I had not cast them off. For I the LORD am their God, and will hear them.

And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.

In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

The LORD shall preserve the tents of Judah, like as afore time: so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the citizens of Jerusalem, shall be but little regarded in comparison of the glory of Judah.

In that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem, and the one who is impaired among them in that day [of persecution] will become [strong and noble] like David; and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the Lord [who is] before them.

And I have poured on the house of David, And on the inhabitant of Jerusalem, A spirit of grace and supplications, And they have looked unto Me whom they pierced, And they have mourned over it, Like a mourning over the only one, And they have been in bitterness for it, Like a bitterness over the first-born.

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

In like manner, all the other generations, everyone by themselves alone, and there wives by themselves.

And I have brought the third into fire, And refined them like a refining of silver, And have tried them like a trying of gold, It doth call in My name, and I answer it, I have said, 'My people it is,' And it saith, 'Jehovah is my God!'

Then Yahweh will go forth and fight against those nations, like {when he fights} on a day of battle.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

All the land shall be made like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she shall be lifted up, and shall dwell in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel unto the king's wine-presses.

{Like this plague} will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and every kind of animal in those camps.

In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the bowls before the altar.

and the pots in the Temple of the LORD will be like the bowls in front of the altar every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be consecrated to the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. Everyone who offers sacrifices will come, will take them, and will cook in them. Furthermore, at that time, there will no longer be a Canaanite in the Temple of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies."

"And now, go ahead and implore God by saying, "Be gracious to us.' Will he receive you favorably and accept offerings like that from your hand?" asks the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi [the priests], and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord [grain] offerings in righteousness.

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

You said, "It is futile to serve God,' and, "What did we get out of it when we carried out his requirements and went about like mourners in the presence of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies?'

And in the day that I will make, sayeth the LORD of Hosts, they shall be mine own possession: and I will favour them, like as a man favoureth his own son, that doth him service.