The Lord who commands armies planned it – to dishonor the pride that comes from all her beauty, ¹  to humiliate all the dignitaries of the earth.

At that time ¹  the Lord who commands armies will become a beautiful crown and a splendid diadem for the remnant of his people.

For the Lord is angry at all the nations and furious with all their armies. He will annihilate them and slaughter them.

“For a remnant will leave Jerusalem; survivors will come out of Mount Zion. The intense devotion of the Lord who commands armies ¹  will accomplish this.

Indeed, they live in the holy city; ¹  they trust in ²  the God of Israel, whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves surge. The Lord who commands armies is his name!

Kings will come against it with their armies. ¹  They will encamp in siege all around it. ²  Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. ³ 

Seek good and not evil so you can live! Then the Lord, the God who commands armies, just might be with you, as you claim he is.

Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear. ¹  The Lord who commands armies has decreed it. ² 

Be sure of this! The Lord who commands armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. ¹ 

This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ¹  for they taunted and verbally harassed ²  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

Just ¹  as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies ²  had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ³ 

quenched raging fire, ¹  escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength in weakness, ²  became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight,

At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord who commands armies, by a people that are tall and smooth-skinned, a people that are feared far and wide, a nation strong and victorious, whose land rivers divide. ¹  The tribute ²  will be brought to the place where the Lord who commands armies has chosen to reside, on Mount Zion. ³ 

Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies. There were about fifteen thousand survivors from the army of the eastern peoples; a hundred and twenty thousand sword-wielding soldiers had been killed. ¹ 

Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. ¹  For he has defied the armies of the living God!”

But David’s men said to him, “We are afraid while we are still here in Judah! What will it be like if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?”

The armies were deployed opposite each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began, and the Israelites killed 100,000 Syrian foot soldiers in one day.

The Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had 44,760 men in their combined armies, warriors who carried shields and swords, were equipped with bows, and were trained for war. ¹ 

“So now, say this to my servant David: ‘This is what the Lord who commands armies ¹  says: “I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd ²  to make you a leader of my people Israel.