Zechariah 13:1–9

GOD’S PEOPLE CLEANSED

13 “On that day a fountainq will be opened for the house of David and for the residents of Jerusalem, to wash away sin and impurity.r 2 On that day”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—“I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered.s I will banish the prophetsH and the unclean spirit from the land. 3 If a man still prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You cannot remain alive because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord.’ When he prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through.t 4 On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not put on a hairy cloaku in order to deceive. 5 He will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I work the land, for a man purchasedF me as a servant since my youth.’v 6 If someone asks him, ‘What are these woundsw on your chest?’G—then he will answer, ‘I received the wounds in the house of my friends’.

7 Sword, awake against my shepherd,

against the man who is my associate—

this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.

Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;a

I will turn my hand against the little ones.

8 In the whole land—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

two-thirdsH will be cut off and die,

but a third will be left in it.

9 I will put this third through the fire;

I will refine them as silver is refined

and test them as gold is tested.b

They will call on my name,

and I will answer them.c

I will say, ‘They are my people’,

and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’ ”d