Zechariah 8:1–14:21

And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:

2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I have been jealous for Sion with a great jealousy, and with a great indignation have I been jealous for her.

3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: I am returned to Sion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, The sanctified mountain.

4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem: and every man with his staff in his hand through multitude of days.

5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls, playing in the streets thereof.

6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: If it seem hard in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days: shall it be hard in my eyes, saith the Lord of hosts?

7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will save my people from the land of the east, and from the land of the going down of the sun.

8 And 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 justice.

9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strengthened, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, in the day that the house of the Lord of hosts was founded, that the temple might be built.

10 For before those days there was no hire for men, neither was there hire for beasts, neither was there peace to him that came in, nor to him that went out, because of the tribulation: and I let all men go every one against his neighbour.

11 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people according to the former days, saith the Lord of hosts.

12 But there shall be the seed of peace: the vine shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew: and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

13 And it shall come to pass, that as you were a curse among the Gentiles, O house of Juda, and house of Israel: so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing: fear not, let your hands be strengthened.

14 For thus saith the Lord of hosts: As I purposed to afflict you, when your fathers had provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord,

15 And I had no mercy: so turning again I have thought in these days to do good to the house of Juda, and Jerusalem: fear not.

16 These then are the things, which you shall do: Speak ye truth every one to his neighbour; judge ye truth and judgment of peace in your gates.

17 And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his friend: and love not a false oath: for all these are the things that I hate, saith the Lord.

18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:

19 Thus saith the Lord 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 Juda, joy, and gladness, and great solemnities: only love ye truth and peace.

20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, until people come and dwell in many cities,

21 And the inhabitants go one to another, saying: Let us go, and entreat the face of the Lord, and let us seek the Lord of hosts: I also will go.

22 And many peoples, and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the Lord.

23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: In those days, wherein ten men of all languages of the Gentiles shall take hold, and shall hold fast the skirt of one that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

Chapter 9

The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus the rest thereof: for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of Israel is the Lord’s.

2 Emath also in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon: for they have taken to themselves to be exceeding wise.

3 And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together silver as earth, and gold as the mire of the streets.

4 Behold the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.

5 Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited.

6 And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.

7 And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite.

8 And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going and returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them: for now I have seen with my eyes.

9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.

10 And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth.

11 Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water.

12 Return to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope, I will render thee double as I declare today.

13 Because I have bent Juda for me as a bow, I have filled Ephraim: and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, above thy sons, O Greece, and I will make thee as the sword of the mighty.

14 And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his dart shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and go in the whirlwind of the south.

15 The Lord of hosts will protect them: and they shall devour, and subdue with the stones of the sling: and drinking they shall be inebriated as it were with wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and as the horns of the altar.

16 And the Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of his people: for holy stones shall be lifted up over his land.

17 For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?

Chapter 10

Ask ye of the Lord rain in the latter season, and the Lord will make snows, and will give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

2 For the idols have spoken what was unprofitable, and the diviners have seen a lie, and the dreamers have spoken vanity: they comforted in vain: therefore they were led away as a flock: they shall be afflicted, because they have no shepherd.

3 My wrath is kindled against the shepherds, and I will visit upon the buck goats: for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Juda, and hath made them as the horse of his glory in the battle.

4 Out of him shall come forth the corner, out of him the pin, out of him the bow of battle, out of him every exacter together.

5 And they shall be as mighty men, treading under foot the mire of the ways in battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders of horses shall be confounded.

6 And I will strengthen the house of Juda, and save the house of Joseph: and I will bring them back again, because I will have mercy on them: and they shall be as they were when I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them.

7 And they shall be as the valiant men of Ephraim, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: and their children shall see, and shall rejoice, and their heart shall be joyful in the Lord.

8 I will whistle for them, and I will gather them together, because I have redeemed them: and I will multiply them as they were multiplied before.

9 And I will sow them among peoples: and from afar they shall remember me: and they shall live with their children, and shall return.

10 And I will bring them back out of the land of Egypt, and I will gather them from among the Assyrians: and will bring them to the land of Galaad, and Libanus, and place shall not be found for them.

11 And he shall pass over the strait of the sea, and shall strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the river shall be confounded, and the pride of Assyria shall be humbled, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart.

12 I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk in his name, saith the Lord.

Chapter 11

Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let fire devour thy cedars.

2 Howl, thou fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, for the mighty are laid waste: howl, ye oaks of Basan, because the fenced forest is cut down.

3 The voice of the howling of the shepherds, because their glory is laid waste: the voice of the roaring of the lions, because the pride of the Jordan is spoiled.

4 Thus saith the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,

5 Which they that possessed, slew, and repented not, and they sold them, saying: Blessed be the Lord, we are become rich: and their shepherds spared them not.

6 And I will no more spare the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: behold I will deliver the men, every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall destroy the land, and I will not deliver it out of their hand.

7 And I will feed the flock of slaughter for this, O ye poor of the flock. And I took unto me two rods, one I called Beauty, and the other I called a Cord, and I fed the flock.

8 And I cut off three shepherds in one month, and my soul was straitened in their regard: for their soul also varied in my regard.

9 And I said: I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die: and that which is cut off, let it be cut off: and let the rest devour every one the flesh of his neighbour.

10 And I took my rod that was called Beauty, and I cut it asunder to make void my covenant, which I had made with all people.

11 And it was made void in that day: and so the poor of the flock that keep for me, understood that it is the word of the Lord.

12 And I…