Zechariah 9–14
Prophecies against Neighboring Nations
1 The 1burden of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach, with aDamascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord),
2 And aHamath also, which borders on it;
bTyre and cSidon, 1though 2they are bvery wise.
3 For Tyre built herself a afortress
And bpiled up silver like dust,
And cgold like the mire of the streets.
4 Behold, the Lord will adispossess her
And cast her wealth into the sea;
And she will be bconsumed with fire.
5 Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.
Gaza too will writhe in great pain;
Also Ekron, for her expectation has been confounded.
Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.
6 And a 1mongrel race will dwell in aAshdod,
And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
7 And I will remove their blood from their mouth
And their detestable things from between their teeth.
Then they also will be a remnant for our God,
And be like a 1clan in Judah,
And Ekron like a Jebusite.
8 But I will camp around My house 1because of an army,
Because of ahim who passes by and returns;
And bno oppressor will pass over them anymore,
For now I have seen with My eyes.
9 aRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your bking is coming to you;
He is 1cjust and dendowed with salvation,
eHumble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a fcolt, the 2foal of a donkey.
10 I will acut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the bhorse from Jerusalem;
And the cbow of war will be cut off.
And He will speak dpeace to the nations;
And His edominion will be from sea to sea,
And from the 1River to the ends of the earth.
Deliverance of Judah and Ephraim
11 As for you also, because of the ablood of My covenant with you,
I have set your bprisoners free from the 1waterless pit.
12 Return to the 1astronghold, O prisoners 2who have the bhope;
This very day I am declaring that I will restore cdouble to you.
13 For I will abend Judah 1as My bow,
I will fill the bow with Ephraim.
And I will stir up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O bGreece;
And I will make you like a cwarrior’s sword.
14 Then the Lord will appear aover them,
And His barrow will go forth like lightning;
And the Lord 1God will blow the ctrumpet,
And will march in the dstorm winds of the south.
15 aThe Lord of hosts will defend them.
And they will bdevour and trample on the csling stones;
And they will drink and be dboisterous as with wine;
And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin,
Drenched like the ecorners of the altar.
16 And the Lord their God will asave them in that day
As the flock of His people;
For they are as the stones of a bcrown,
1Sparkling in His land.
17 For what 1acomeliness and bbeauty will be 2theirs!
Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
God Will Bless Judah and Ephraim
1 Ask arain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain—
The Lord who bmakes the 1storm clouds;
And He will give them cshowers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.
2 For the ateraphim speak 1iniquity,
And the bdiviners see 2lying visions
And tell cfalse dreams;
They comfort in vain.
Therefore the people 3wander like dsheep,
They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.
3 “My aanger is kindled against the shepherds,
And I will punish the 1male goats;
For the Lord of hosts has bvisited His flock, the house of Judah,
And will make them like His majestic horse in battle.
4 “From 1them will come the acornerstone,
From 1them the tent peg,
From 1them the bow of bbattle,
From 1them every 2ruler, all of them together.
5 “They will be as mighty men,
aTreading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle;
And they will fight, for the Lord will be with them;
And the briders on horses will be put to shame.
6 “I will astrengthen the house of Judah,
And I will bsave the house of Joseph,
Because I have had dcompassion on them;
And they will be as though I had enot rejected them,
For I am the Lord their God and I will fanswer them.
7 “Ephraim will be like a mighty man,
And their heart will be glad as if from wine;
Indeed, their achildren will see it and be glad,
1Their heart will rejoice in the Lord.
8 “I will awhistle for them to gather them together,
For I have redeemed them;
And they will be as bnumerous as they 1cwere before.
9 “When I 1scatter them among the peoples,
They will aremember Me in far countries,
And they with their children will live and come back.
10 “I will abring them back from the land of Egypt
And gather them from Assyria;
And I will bring them into the land of bGilead and Lebanon
1Until cno room can be found for them.
11 “And they will pass through the asea of distress
And He will strike the waves in the sea,
So that all the depths of the bNile will dry up;
And the pride of cAssyria will be brought down
And the scepter of dEgypt will depart.
12 “And I will astrengthen them in the Lord,
And in His name bthey will walk,” declares the Lord.
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon,
That a afire may feed on your bcedars.
2 Wail, O 1cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
Because the glorious trees have been destroyed;
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
For the 2impenetrable forest has come down.
3 There is a sound of the shepherds’ awail,
For their glory is ruined;
There is a bsound of the young lions’ roar,
For the 1pride of the Jordan is ruined.
4 Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to aslaughter.
5 “Those who buy them slay them and 1go aunpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for bI have become rich!’ And their cown shepherds have no pity on them.
6 “For I will ano longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will bcause the men to 1fall, each into another’s 2power and into the 2power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will cnot deliver them from their 2power.”
7 So I apastured the flock doomed to slaughter, 1hence the bafflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two cstaffs: the one I called 2dFavor and the other I called 3eUnion; so I pastured the flock.
8 Then I annihilated the three shepherds in aone month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also 1was weary of me.
9 Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to adie, 1let it die, and what is to be annihilated, 2let it be annihilated; and 3let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”
10 I took my staff 1aFavor and cut it in pieces, to 2bbreak my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was 1broken on that day, and 2thus the aafflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord.
12 I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my awages; but if not, 1never mind!” So they weighed out bthirty shekels of silver as my wages.
13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the apotter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord.
14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff 1aUnion, to bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a 1afoolish shepherd.
16 “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will anot care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will bdevour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.
17 “aWoe to the worthless shepherd
Who leaves the flock!
A bsword will be on his arm
And on his right eye!
His carm will be totally withered
And his right eye will be 1blind.”
1 The 1burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.
Thus declares the Lord who astretches out the heavens, blays the foundation of the earth, and cforms the spirit of man within him,
2 “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a acup 1that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against bJudah.
3 “It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy astone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be bseverely 1injured. And all the cnations of the earth will be gathered against it.
4 “In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will 1watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
5 “Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘1A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the Lord of hosts, their God.’
6 “In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a afirepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the binhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem.
7 “The Lord also will asave the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of bDavid and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah.
8 “In that day the Lord will adefend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who 1bis feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like cGod, like the dangel of the Lord before them.
9 “And in that day I will 1aset about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 “I will apour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 1the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have bpierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one cmourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.
11 “In that day there will be great amourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the 1plain of 2Megiddo.
12 “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves;