Zechariah 9–14

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. ¹³And Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty silver-pieces, and cast them to the potter in the house of Jehovah. ¹⁴And I cut asunder mine other staff, Bands, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And Jehovah said unto me, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who shall not visit those that are about to perish, neither shall seek that which is strayed away, nor heal that which is wounded, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their hoofs in pieces. ¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye utterly darkened.

Chapter 12

¹The burden of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Thus saith Jehovah, who stretcheth out the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him: ²Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of bewilderment unto all the peoples round about, and also against Judah shall it be in the siege against Jerusalem. ³And it shall come to pass in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone unto all peoples: all that burden themselves with it shall certainly be wounded, and all the nations of the earth shall be assembled together against it. ⁴In that day, saith Jehovah, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; but I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵And the leaders of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength through Jehovah of hosts their God. ⁶In that day will I make the leaders of Judah like a hearth of fire among wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall dwell again in her own place, in Jerusalem. ⁷And Jehovah shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not magnified over Judah. ⁸In that day will Jehovah defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that stumbleth among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David as God, as the Angel of Jehovah before them.

⁹And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. ¹⁰And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look on me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. ¹¹In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon. ¹²And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; ¹³the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; ¹⁴all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

Chapter 13

¹In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. ²And it shall come to pass in that day,…