Chapter 9

¹The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus the rest thereof: for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of Israel is the Lord's. ²Emath also in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon: for they have taken to themselves to be exceeding wise. ³And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together silver as earth, and gold as the mire of the streets. ⁴Behold the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. ⁵Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded : and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited. ⁶And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. ⁷And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite. ⁸And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going and returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them: for now I have seen with my eyes. ⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. ¹⁰And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth. ¹¹Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water. ¹²Return to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope, I will render thee double at, I declare to day. ¹³Because I have bent Juda for me as a bow, I have filled Ephraim: and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, above thy sons, O Greece, and I will make thee as the sword of the mighty. ¹⁴And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his dart shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and go in the whirlwind of the south. ¹⁵The Lord of hosts will protect them: and they shall devour, and subdue with the stones of the sling: and drinking they shall be inebriated as it were with wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and as the horns of the altar. ¹⁶And the Lord their God will save them in that day, as the dock of his people: for holy stones shall be lifted up over his land. ¹⁷For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?