UST MIC Chapter 4

Yahweh will rule over all peoples in the future

4 But Yahweh says that in the latter days,

the mountain where his temple stands will become the most important of all the mountains.

Yes, Yahweh will cause it to be the most important place,

and a lot of people from many different people groups will come there to worship.

2 People from many nations will gather and say to each other,

“Let us go to the mountain where Yahweh is,

to the temple where we can worship the God whom Jacob worshiped.

There God will teach us how he wants us to live,

and we will do what he tells us to do.”

Indeed, Zion is the place from which God will send out his instructions,

and from Jerusalem Yahweh will announce his messages.

3 Yahweh will settle disputes among many peoples

and will make decisions for powerful nations that are far away.

Then those peoples will reshape their implements of war

into implements for farming.

Armies of nations will no longer fight against armies of other nations,

and people will no longer train to be soldiers.

4 Everyone will sit peacefully under his own grapevines, and under his own fig trees,

and no one will cause any of them to be afraid.

That will certainly happen because Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has commanded it.

5 Even though each one of all of the other people groups obeys its own god,

as for us, we will obey Yahweh our God forever.

6 Yahweh says, “At that time

I will gather the people who are injured and those who are scattered,

that is, everyone whom I have caused to suffer.

7 I will cause the injured ones to be the faithful survivors of my people

and I will cause all of those whom I drove away to become a mighty nation.

Then I, Yahweh, will rule over them on Mount Zion,

now and forever.

8 You people of Zion, who are like a watchtower on the hill guarding my people,

you will receive your former authority again.

Jerusalem will once again be the capitol of my kingdom.”

9 But now you are crying out,

and it is not because you have no king,

or because your advisors have all died.

You act as though you are suffering greatly, as much as a woman who is birthing a child!

10 People of Zion, you should agonize and wail like a woman birthing a child,

because now you must leave this city

and live out in the open fields.

You will go all the way to Babylon.

However, while you are there,

Yahweh will rescue you.

That is where he will take you away from your enemies.

11 But now the armies of many nations have gathered to attack you.

They are saying, “We are here to destroy this city!

We want to see the ruins of Zion!”

12 But as for them, they do not know what Yahweh is thinking.

They do not understand that this is what he has planned for them.

In fact, he has gathered them together to destroy them,

just as a farmer gathers grain onto a threshing floor to crush it.

13 So you people of Zion, become active and defeat your enemies!

You can do this because I will cause you to be very strong.

So destroy these many peoples

and give to me, Yahweh, the Ruler of the whole earth,

everything valuable that your enemies possess.