They will say, ¹  ‘Prepare to do battle ²  against it! Come on! Let’s attack it at noon!’ But later they will say, ³  ‘Oh, oh! Too bad! ⁴  The day is almost over and the shadows of evening are getting long.

Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears. They are cruel and show no mercy. They sound like the roaring sea as they ride forth on their horses. Lined up in formation like men going into battle to attack you, Daughter Zion.’” ¹ 

I have listened to them very carefully, ¹  but they do not speak honestly. None of them regrets the evil he has done. None of them says, “I have done wrong!” ²  All of them persist in their own wayward course ³  like a horse charging recklessly into battle.

Listen, you ¹  who sit enthroned above the valley on a rocky plateau. I am opposed to you,’ ²  says the Lord. ³  ‘You boast, “No one can swoop down on us. No one can penetrate into our places of refuge.” ⁴ 

Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor.” ¹ 

Do not give her archers time to string their bows or to put on their coats of armor. ¹  Do not spare any of her young men. Completely destroy ²  her whole army.

Do not lose your courage or become afraid because of the reports that are heard in the land. For a report will come in one year. Another report will follow it in the next. There will be violence in the land with ruler fighting against ruler.”

You have not gone up in the breaks in the wall, nor repaired a wall for the house of Israel that it would stand strong in the battle on the day of the Lord.

Pharaoh with his great army and mighty horde will not help ¹  him in battle, when siege ramps are erected and siege-walls are built to kill many people.

But those in Jerusalem ¹  will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, ²  but the king of Babylon ³  will accuse them of violations ⁴  in order to seize them. ⁵ 

However, I will first tell you what is written in a dependable book. ¹  (There is no one who strengthens me against these princes, ²  except Michael your ³  prince.

“There will arise in his ¹  place one from her family line ²  who will come against their army and will enter the stronghold of the king of the north and will move against them successfully. ³ 

“In those times many will oppose ¹  the king of the south. ²  Those who are violent ³  among your own people will rise up in confirmation of ⁴  the vision, but they will falter.

He struggled ¹  with an angel and prevailed; he wept and begged for his favor. He found God ²  at Bethel, ³  and there he spoke with him! ⁴ 

Where now is the den of the lions, ¹  the feeding place ²  of the young lions, where ³  the lion, lioness, ⁴  and lion cub once prowled ⁵  and no one disturbed them? ⁶ 

The Lord’s great day of judgment ¹  is almost here; it is approaching very rapidly! There will be a bitter sound on the Lord’s day of judgment; at that time warriors will cry out in battle. ² 

On that day there will be great confusion from the Lord among them; they will seize each other and attack one another violently.

The next day Moses ¹  saw two men ²  fighting, and tried to make peace between ³  them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’

When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ¹  ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself ²  by kicking against the goads.’ ³ 

But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.