⁸ In that day will the Lord guard and defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he who is [spiritually] feeble and stumbles among them in that day [of persecution] shall become [strong and noble] like David; and the house of David [shall maintain its supremacy] like God, like the ^[a]Angel of the Lord Who is before them.

⁹ And it shall be in that day that I will make it My aim to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

² I have loved you, says the Lord. Yet you say, How and in what way have You loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the Lord; yet I loved Jacob (Israel),

³ But [in comparison with the degree of love I have for Jacob] I have hated Esau [Edom] and have laid waste his mountains, and his heritage I have given to the jackals of the wilderness.^(A)

⁴ Though [impoverished] Edom should say, We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places—thus says the Lord of hosts: They may build, but I will tear and throw down; and men will call them the Wicked Country, the people against whom the Lord has indignation forever.

⁵ Your own eyes shall see this and you shall say, The Lord is great and will be magnified over and beyond the border of Israel!^(B)

²⁷ For just as the lightning flashes from the east and shines and ^[a]is seen as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.

²⁸ Wherever there is a fallen body (a corpse), there the vultures (or eagles) will flock together.^(A)

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not shed its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.^(B)

³⁰ Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and ^[b]beat their breasts and lament in anguish, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory [in brilliancy and splendor].^(C)

³¹ And listen! You will become pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.

³² He will be great (eminent) and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His forefather David,

³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob throughout the ages; and of His reign there will be no end.^(A)

¹⁴ Simeon [Peter] has rehearsed how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people [to bear and honor] His name.

¹⁵ And with this the predictions of the prophets agree, as it is written,

¹⁶ After this I will come back, and will rebuild the house of David, which has fallen; I will rebuild its [very] ruins, and I will set it up again,

¹⁷ So that the rest of men may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom My name has been invoked,