Zechariah 13–14

13“When that time comes,” says the Lord Almighty, “a fountain will be opened to purify the descendants of David and the people of Jerusalem from their sin and idolatry. ²At that time I will remove the names of the idols from the land, and no one will remember them any more. I will get rid of anyone who claims to be a prophet and will take away the desire to worship idols. ³Then if anyone still insists on prophesying, his own father and mother will tell him that he must be put to death, because he claimed to speak the Lord’s word, but spoke lies instead. When he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him to death. ⁴When that time comes, no prophet will be proud of his visions, or act like a prophet, or wear a prophet’s coarse garment in order to deceive people. ⁵Instead, he will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer—I have farmed the land all my life.’ ⁶Then if someone asks him, ‘What are those wounds on your chest?’ he will answer, ‘I got them at a friend’s house.’ ”

The Command to Kill God’s Shepherd

^7*The Lord Almighty says, “Wake up, sword, and attack the shepherd^s who works for me! Kill him, and the sheep will be scattered. I will attack my people ⁸and throughout the land two-thirds of the people will die. ⁹And I will test the third that survives and will purify them as silver is purified by fire. I will test them as gold is tested. Then they will pray to me, and I will answer them. I will tell them that they are my people, and they will confess that I am their God.”

Jerusalem and the Nations

14The day when the Lord will sit in judgement is near. Then Jerusalem will be looted, and the loot will be divided up before your eyes. ²The Lord will bring all the nations together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken away from the city. ³Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. ⁴At that time he will stand on the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem. Then the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west by a large valley. Half the mountain will move northwards and half of it southwards. ⁵You will escape through this valley that divides the mountain in two.^t You will flee as your ancestors did when the earthquake struck in the time of King Uzziah of Judah. The Lord my God will come, bringing all the angels with him.

⁶When that time comes, there will no longer be cold or frost,^{u 7}nor any darkness. There will always be daylight, even at night-time. When this will happen is known only to the Lord.

^8*When that day comes, fresh water will flow from Jerusalem, half of it to the Dead Sea and the other half to the Mediterranean. It will flow all the year round, in the dry season as well as the wet. ⁹Then the Lord will be king over all the earth; everyone will worship him as God and know him by the same name.

¹⁰The whole region, from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the south, will be made level. Jerusalem will tower above the land round it; the city will reach from the Benjamin Gate to the Corner Gate, where there had been an earlier gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. ^11*The people will live there in safety, no longer threatened by destruction.

¹²The Lord will bring a terrible disease on all the nations that make war on Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot away while they are still alive; their eyes and their tongues will rot away.

¹³At that time the Lord will make them so confused and afraid that everyone will seize the man next to him and attack him. ¹⁴The men of Judah will fight to defend Jerusalem. They will take as loot the wealth of all the nations—gold, silver, and clothing in great abundance.

¹⁵A terrible disease will also fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, and the donkeys—on all the animals in the camps of the enemy.

^16*Then all the survivors from the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go there each year to worship the Lord Almighty as king, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. ¹⁷If any nation refuses to go and worship the Lord Almighty as king, then rain will not fall on their land. ¹⁸If the Egyptians refuse to celebrate the Festival of Shelters, then they will be struck by the same disease that the Lord will send on every nation that refuses to go. ¹⁹This will be the punishment that will fall on Egypt and on all the other nations if they do not celebrate the Festival of Shelters.

²⁰At that time even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with the words “Dedicated to the Lord”. The cooking pots in the Temple will be as sacred as the bowls before the altar. ²¹Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in all Judah will be set apart for use in the worship of the Lord Almighty. The people who offer sacrifices will use them for boiling the meat of the sacrifices. When that time comes, there will no longer be any merchant in the Temple of the Lord Almighty.