Zechariah 10–14

The Restoration for Judah and Israel

10Ask rain ^bfrom the Lord

in the season of ^cthe spring rain,

from the Lord ^dwho makes the storm clouds,

and ^ehe will give them showers of rain,

to everyone the vegetation in the field.

²For ^fthe household gods ^gutter nonsense,

and the diviners see lies;

^hthey tell false dreams

and give empty consolation.

Therefore ⁱthe people wander like sheep;

they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.

^3j“My anger is hot against the shepherds,

and ^kI will punish the leaders;¹

for ^lthe Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah,

and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.

⁴From him shall come ^mthe cornerstone,

from him ⁿthe tent peg,

from him the battle bow,

from him every ruler—^oall of them together.

⁵They shall be like mighty men in battle,

^ptrampling the foe in the mud of the streets;

they shall fight because the Lord is with them,

and they shall put to shame ^qthe riders on horses.

^6r“I will strengthen the house of Judah,

and ^sI will save the house of Joseph.

^tI will bring them back ^ubecause I have compassion on them,

and they shall be as though I had not rejected them,

for ^vI am the Lord their God and I will answer them.

⁷Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior,

and ^wtheir hearts shall be glad as with wine.

Their children shall see it and be glad;

their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord.

^8x“I will whistle for them and ^ygather them in,

for I have redeemed them,

and ^zthey shall be as many as they were before.

^9aThough I scattered them among the nations,

yet in far countries ^bthey shall remember me,

and with their children they shall live and return.

^10cI will bring them home from the land of Egypt,

and gather them from Assyria,

and ^dI will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon,

^etill there is no room for them.

^11fHe shall pass through the sea of troubles

and strike down the waves of the sea,

^gand all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up.

The pride of Assyria shall be laid low,

and ^hthe scepter of Egypt shall depart.

¹²ⁱI will make them strong in the Lord,

and ^jthey shall walk in his name,”

declares the Lord.

The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

11Open your doors, ^kO Lebanon,

that the fire may devour your cedars!

²Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

for the glorious trees are ruined!

Wail, ^koaks of Bashan,

for the thick forest has been felled!

³The sound of ^lthe wail of ^lthe shepherds,

for their glory is ruined!

The sound of the roar of ^mthe lions,

ⁿfor the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

⁴Thus said the Lord my God: ^o“Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. ^5pThose who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, ^qI have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. ⁶For ^rI will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

^7sSo I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named ^uFavor, the other I named ^vUnion. ^sAnd I tended the sheep. ⁸In one month ^wI destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. ⁹So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. ^xWhat is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.” ¹⁰And I took ^ymy staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages ^zthirty pieces of silver. ¹³Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—^athe lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the ^zthirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. ¹⁴Then I broke ^bmy second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of ^ca foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd ^dwho does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but ^edevours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

^17f“Woe to my worthless shepherd,

^gwho deserts the flock!

May the sword strike his arm

and ^hhis right eye!

Let his arm be wholly withered,

his right eye utterly blinded!”

The Lord Will Give Salvation

12ⁱThe oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, ^jwho stretched out the heavens and ^kfounded the earth and ^jformed the spirit of man within him: ²“Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem ^la cup of staggering to ^mall the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem ⁿwill also be against Judah. ^3oOn that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. ^pAll who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And ^mall the nations of the earth will gather against it. ^4oOn that day, declares the Lord, ^qI will strike every horse ^rwith panic, and its rider ^rwith madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples ^rwith blindness. ⁵Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.’

^6o“On that day I will make the clans of Judah ^slike a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And ^tthey shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while ^uJerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.

⁷“And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. ^8oOn that day ^vthe Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that ^wthe feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, ^xlike the angel of the Lord, going before them. ^9oAnd on that day ^yI will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Him Whom They Have Pierced

¹⁰“And ^zI will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and ^zpleas for mercy, so that, ^awhen they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, ^bthey shall mourn for him, ^cas one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. ^11oOn that day ^dthe mourning in Jerusalem will be as great ^eas the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²The land shall mourn, ^feach family¹ by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of ^gNathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹³the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of ^hthe Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

13ⁱ“On that day there shall be ^ja fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

Idolatry Cut Off

²“And ⁱon that day, declares the Lord of hosts, ^kI will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that ^lthey shall be remembered no more. And also ^mI will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. ³And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ⁿ‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.

⁴“On that day ^oevery prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, ⁵but he will say, ^p‘I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.’^{1 6}And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’² he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Struck

⁷“Awake, O sword, against ^qmy shepherd,

against the man who stands next to me,”

declares the Lord of hosts.

^r“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;

I will turn my hand against the little ones.

⁸In the whole land, declares the Lord,

two thirds shall be cut off and perish,

^sand one third shall be left alive.

⁹And ^tI will put this third into the fire,

and refine them as one refines silver,

and test them as gold is tested.

^uThey will call upon my name,

and ^vI will answer them.

^wI will say, ‘They are my people’;

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

The Coming Day of the Lord

14Behold, ^xa day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. ²For ^yI will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and ^zthe city shall be taken ^aand the houses plundered ^band the women raped. ^cHalf of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. ^3dThen the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. ^4eOn that day his feet shall stand ^fon ^gthe Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and ^gthe Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by ^ha very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. ⁵And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from ⁱthe earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.¹

^6eOn that day ^jthere shall be ^jno light, cold, or frost.^{2 7k}And there shall be a unique³ day, ^lwhich is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but ^mat evening time there shall be light.

^8eOn that day ⁿ…