Zechariah 8–14

Chapter 8

¹And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying, ²Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury. ³Thus saith Jehovah: I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called, The city of truth; and the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, The holy mountain. ⁴Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with his staff in his hand for multitude of days. ⁵And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. ⁶Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: If it be wonderful in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be wonderful in mine eyes? saith Jehovah of hosts. ⁷Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; ⁸and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

⁹Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, that were in the day that the foundation of the house of Jehovah of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. ¹⁰For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; and there was no peace for him that went out or that came in, because of the distress: for I let loose all men, every one against his neighbour. ¹¹But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith Jehovah of hosts; ¹²for the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. ¹³And it shall come to pass, like as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing: fear ye not, let your hands be strong. ¹⁴For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Like as I thought to do you evil when your fathers provoked me to wrath, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I repented not; ¹⁵so again have I thought in these days to do good unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear ye not. ¹⁶These are the things that ye shall do: Speak truth every one with his neighbour; execute truth and the judgment of peace in your gates; ¹⁷and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith Jehovah.

¹⁸And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying, ¹⁹Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful gatherings. Love ye then truth and peace. ²⁰Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Yet again shall there come peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities; ²¹and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to supplicate Jehovah, and to seek Jehovah of hosts: I will go also. ²²And many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek Jehovah of hosts in Jerusalem, and to supplicate Jehovah. ²³Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: In those days shall ten men take hold, out of all languages of the nations, shall even take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you.

Chapter 9

¹The burden of the word of Jehovah, in the land of Hadrach, and on Damascus shall it rest; (for Jehovah hath an eye upon men, and upon all the tribes of Israel;) ²and also on Hamath which bordereth thereon; on Tyre and Zidon, though she be very wise. ³And Tyre hath built herself a stronghold, and hath heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. ⁴Behold, the Lord will take possession of her, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire. ⁵Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gazah also, and she shall be greatly pained; Ekron also, for her expectation shall be put to shame: and the king shall perish from Gazah, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. ⁶And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines; ⁷and I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; but he that remaineth, he also shall belong to our God, and shall be as a leader in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. ⁸And I will encamp about my house because of the army, because of those that pass by and that return; and the exactor shall not pass through them any more: for now have I seen it with mine eyes.

⁹Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh to thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass. ¹⁰And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle-bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace unto the nations; and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. ¹¹As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I will send forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.

¹²Turn again to the stronghold, prisoners of hope! even to-day do I declare I will render double unto thee. ¹³For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will raise up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and make thee like the sword of a mighty man. ¹⁴And Jehovah shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord Jehovah will blow the trumpet, and will march with whirlwinds of the south. ¹⁵Jehovah of hosts will defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as from wine; and they shall be filled like a bowl, like the corners of the altar. ¹⁶And Jehovah their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up upon his land. ¹⁷For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens.

Chapter 10

¹Ask of Jehovah rain in the time of the latter rain; Jehovah will make lightnings, and he will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. ²For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams: they comfort in vain. Therefore they have gone away as a flock, they are in distress, because there is no shepherd. ³Mine anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats; for Jehovah of hosts visiteth his flock, the house of Judah, and maketh them as his majestic horse in the battle. ⁴From him shall come forth the corner-stone, from him the nail, from him the battle bow, from him every exactor together.

⁵And they shall be as mighty men, treading down the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, for Jehovah is with them, and the riders on horses shall be put to shame. ⁶And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back again; for I will have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am Jehovah their God, and I will answer them. ⁷And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their hearts shall rejoice as through wine; and their children shall see it, and rejoice; their heart shall be joyful in Jehovah. ⁸I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall multiply as they used to multiply. ⁹And I will sow them among the peoples, and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall live with their children and return. ¹⁰And I will bring them again out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them. ¹¹And he shall pass through the sea of affliction, and shall smite the billows in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up; and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away. ¹²And I will strengthen them in Jehovah; and they shall walk in his name, saith Jehovah.

Chapter 11

¹Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. ²Howl, cypress, for the cedar is fallen; because the noble ones are spoiled. Howl, ye oaks of Bashan; for the strong forest is come down. ³A voice of howling of the shepherds; for their glory is spoiled: a voice of roaring of young lions; for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

⁴Thus saith Jehovah my God: Feed the flock of slaughter, ⁵whose possessors slay them without being held guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be Jehovah! for I am become rich; and their own shepherds pity them not. ⁶For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith Jehovah, and behold, I will deliver men, every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and I will not deliver out of their hand. ⁷So I fed the flock of slaughter, truly the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock. ⁸And I destroyed three shepherds in one month; and my soul was vexed with them, and their soul also loathed me. ⁹And I said, I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die; and that which perisheth let it perish; and let them which are left eat every one the flesh of another. ¹⁰And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹And it was broken in that day; and so the poor of the flock that gave heed to me knew that it was the word of Jehovah. ¹²And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. And they weighed for my hire thirty silver-pieces. ^…