An entire separation of the righteous and the wicked occurs at the end of the world. While a glorious new age dawns for those of God’s people who repent, doomsday in all its horrors overtakes those who don’t. After sending prophets to warn humanity one last time, God brings on his judgment: “Come near, you nations, and hear! Pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth give heed, and all who are upon it, the world, and all who spring from it. Jehovah’s rage is upon all nations, his fury upon all their hosts; he has doomed them, consigned them to the slaughter. . . . For it is Jehovah’s day of vengeance, the year of retribution on behalf of Zion” (Isaiah 34:1–2, 8).
The “year of retribution on behalf of Zion” entails Jehovah’s delivering his people from the power of their enemies at his coming to Zion: “I had resolved on a day of vengeance, and the year of my redeemed had come” (Isaiah 63:4); “According to what they deserve, he will repay them: wrath upon his adversaries, reprisals upon his enemies; to the isles he will render retribution. From the west men will fear Jehovah Omnipotent, and from the rising of the sun his glory. For he will [come upon] them like a hostile torrent impelled by the Spirit of Jehovah. But he will come as Redeemer to Zion, to those of Jacob who repent of transgression” (Isaiah 59:18–20).
