96 passages · Life and end
Heavens, earth, sea, fields and trees are told to rejoice because the Lord is coming to judge the world in righteousness and faithfulness.
God swears the king is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The Lord stands at his right hand, crushing kings and judging the nations, and the king is refreshed and lifts his head.
He tells the young to enjoy their youth, but to remember that God will bring them to judgment. The days of darkness will be many and youth is fleeting.
The book ends with the conclusion that people should fear God and keep his commandments, since God will judge every deed.
The Day of the LORD is pictured as cruel destruction, with people paralyzed by fear, stars dark and the earth shaking. God says He will punish the world's arrogance and its people will flee or be killed.
Here the focus widens from nations to the whole earth, which God will empty and ruin. No class of people is spared, because people have broken the everlasting covenant.
Wine dries up, music stops and the city of chaos lies shattered and shut. Only a few are left, like olives after a harvest.
Some sing praises from the west and east, but Isaiah cries out that he wastes away over treachery. The earth is broken and staggers like a drunkard, and there is no escape from terror, pit and snare.
God tells His people to shut themselves in their rooms for a little while until His anger passes. The LORD will come out to punish the earth's iniquity and the earth will reveal its slain.
On that day the LORD will punish Leviathan, the coiling serpent, and slay the dragon of the sea with His sword.
Edom becomes an empty wasteland, overgrown with thorns and inhabited only by owls, jackals and other wild animals. The reader is told to check the scroll of the LORD, because none of this will fail to happen.
Isaiah tells Hezekiah that everything in his palace, and some of his descendants, will be carried off to Babylon. Hezekiah calls the word good, thinking there will at least be peace in his own days.
God mocks Babylon's spells and astrologers as no better than stubble that will burn. Those she trusted will wander off, and none can save her.
A closing word invites those who fear the LORD and walk in darkness to trust in his name. Those who light their own fires for light will instead lie down in torment.
God calls the idolaters offspring of sorcerers and adulterers who worship among the oaks, sacrifice children and make offerings to stones. He says their efforts will not save them, but those who take refuge in him will inherit the land.
God says he will not destroy all his people, as a good cluster is kept from spoiling, and his servants will inherit the land. Those who abandon him for Fortune and Destiny face the sword and hunger, while his servants will eat, drink and rejoice.
The LORD comes with fire to judge those who rebel, then gathers all nations to see his glory and sends survivors to declare it. Exiles are brought back, all people worship him every Sabbath, and the rebels' fate is a lasting horror.
God summons six armed men and a man in linen with a writing kit, and they stand by the bronze altar as the glory of God moves to the temple threshold.
God tells the profane prince, whose day of final punishment has come, that the turban and crown will be removed and the low lifted up. It will be a ruin until the rightful one comes.
God says righteous men will judge them, a crowd will be brought against them, and lewdness will end so all women take warning and they know he is the LORD.
Daniel sees thrones set, the Ancient of Days seated in judgment, and the boastful beast destroyed. One like a son of man comes with the clouds and is given an everlasting dominion over all peoples.
Daniel asks more about the fourth beast and the horn that wages war on the holy ones. The attendant explains that this king will speak against the Most High and oppress His people for a time, but the court will end his rule and give the kingdom to the holy ones.
Michael will arise in a time of unparalleled distress, and those whose names are written in the book will be delivered. Many who sleep in the dust will awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame, and the wise will shine. Daniel is told to seal the book.
God says He will crush Israel like a cart heavy with grain. The swift, strong, archer and horseman will not escape, and even the bravest will flee.
Since Israel has not returned, God says He will do to them what He has warned, and tells them to prepare to meet Him. He is the maker of mountains and wind and Lord of Hosts.
Amos warns those who long for the Day of the LORD that it will be darkness and not light, like fleeing a lion only to meet a bear.
God swears by Himself that He will deliver up the city, and even ten people left in a house will die. Survivors will be too afraid to speak the LORD's name, and great and small houses will be smashed.
Amos sees the Lord standing by the altar, ordering the temple to be shaken and the people struck. Those who flee, however far, will be found: in Sheol, heaven, Carmel or the sea.
God calls Jonah a second time, and this time he obeys, entering the huge city of Nineveh and announcing that it will be overturned in forty days.
The Day of the LORD is described as near and terrible: a day of wrath, darkness, and battle cries. Neither silver nor gold can save anyone on it.