Zechariah 10–14

10TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s People Will Be Victorious

¹Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime. 

The Lord makes thunderstorms. 

He gives everyone rain showers for the plants in the field. 

²The idols speak lies. 

The fortunetellers see false visions. 

They speak about false dreams. 

They give useless comfort. 

That is why people wander around like sheep. 

They are troubled because there is no shepherd. 

³“My burning anger is directed against the shepherds. 

I will punish the male goats. 

The Lord of Armies takes care of his flock, the people of Judah. 

He makes them like his splendid war horse.” 

⁴From them will come a cornerstone, 

from them a tent peg, 

from them a battle bow, 

from them every leader. 

⁵Together they will be like warriors 

who trample the enemy in the mud on the streets. 

They will fight because the Lord is with them. 

They will put to shame those who ride on horses. 

⁶“I will strengthen the people of Judah. 

I will rescue Joseph’s people. 

I will bring them back, because I have compassion for them. 

It will be as though I had never rejected them, 

because I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. 

⁷The people of Ephraim will be like mighty warriors. 

Their hearts will be glad as if they had some wine ⸤to drink⸥. 

Their sons will see it and be glad. 

Their hearts will find joy in the Lord. 

⁸I will signal them with a whistle 

and gather them because I have reclaimed them. 

They will be as numerous as they have ever been. 

⁹Although I have scattered them among the nations, 

they will remember me even in faraway places. 

They will live with their children and then return. 

¹⁰I will bring them back from Egypt. 

I will gather them from Assyria. 

I will bring them to Gilead and to Lebanon, 

and there won’t be enough room for them.” 

¹¹The Lord will pass through a sea of distress, 

strike the waves in the sea, 

and dry up all the deep places of the Nile River. 

The pride of Assyria will be humiliated, 

and the scepter of Egypt will depart. 

¹²“I will strengthen them in the Lord. 

They will live in his name,” declares the Lord. 

11TH CHAPTER

Zechariah Is Told to Take Care of the Sheep

¹Open your doors, Lebanon, 

so that fire will be able to burn down your cedars. 

²Cry, cypress trees, 

because the cedars have fallen 

and the stately trees have been destroyed. 

Cry, oak trees of Bashan, 

because your dense forest has fallen down. 

³Listen! The shepherds are crying, 

because their rich pastures are destroyed. 

Listen! The young lions are roaring, 

because the lush banks of the Jordan are destroyed. 

⁴This is what the Lord my God says: Take care of the sheep that are about to be slaughtered. ⁵Those who buy them will kill them and go unpunished. Those who sell them will say, “Praise the Lord! I’ve become rich!” Even their own shepherds will have no pity on them. 

⁶The Lord declares, “I will no longer have pity on those who live in the land. I am going to hand the people over to their neighbors and their king, who will crush the land. And I won’t rescue any of them from their power.” 

⁷So I became the shepherd of the sheep that were to be slaughtered and also of the oppressed sheep. I took two shepherd staffs and named one Favor and the other Unity. And I took care of the sheep. ⁸I got rid of three shepherds in one month. I became impatient with the sheep, and they also became disgusted with me. ⁹So I said, “I won’t be your shepherd. Let those that are dying die. Let those that are missing stay missing. And let those that are left devour each other.” 

¹⁰Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it in pieces, to break the promise^athat I had made to all the nations. ¹¹So it was broken on that day, and the oppressed among the sheep who were watching me realized that it was the Lord’s word. 

¹²Then I said to them, “If it’s alright with you, pay me my wages. But if it’s not, don’t.” And they paid me my wages—30 pieces of silver. 

¹³The Lord told me, “Give it to the potter.” So I took the 30 pieces of silver. Such a magnificent price was set by them! I gave the pieces of silver to the potter at the house of the Lord. 

¹⁴Then I broke my second staff, called Unity, in pieces, to break off the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. 

¹⁵Then the Lord said to me, “Use the equipment of a foolish shepherd again. ¹⁶I’m about to place a shepherd in the land. He will not take care of those that are dying. He will not search for the young. He will not heal those that have broken their legs or support those that can still stand. But he will eat the meat of the fat animals and tear off their hoofs. 

¹⁷“How horrible it will be for the foolish shepherd who abandoned the sheep. 

A sword will strike his arm and his right eye. 

His arm will be completely withered. 

His right eye will be completely blind.” 

12TH CHAPTER

The Lord Will Save Jerusalem

¹This is the prophetic revelation, the Lord’s word about Israel. The Lord—who spread out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit in a person—says, ²“I’m going to make Jerusalem like a cup ⸤of wine⸥ that makes all the surrounding people stagger. They will attack Judah along with Jerusalem. ³On that day I will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift. All who try to lift it will be severely injured. All the nations in the world will gather ⸤to fight⸥ against Jerusalem.” 

⁴The Lord declares, “On that day I will strike every horse with panic and every rider with madness. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will strike all the horses of the nations blind. ⁵Then the leaders of Judah will think to themselves, ‘The people who live in Jerusalem are strong because of the Lord of Armies, their God.’ 

⁶“On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire on a pile of wood and like a burning torch among freshly cut straw. They will burn up all the surrounding nations to the right and to the left. But the people of Jerusalem will remain safe in Jerusalem. 

⁷“The Lord will save Judah’s tents first so that the honor of David’s family and the honor of those who live in Jerusalem will not be greater than the honor of Judah. ⁸On that day the Lord will defend those who live in Jerusalem so that even those who stumble will be like David, and David’s family will be like God, like the Messenger of the Lord ahead of them. 

⁹“On that day I will seek to destroy all the nations who attack Jerusalem. 

The People of Jerusalem Will Look at the One They Stabbed

¹⁰“I will pour out the Spirit of blessing and mercy on David’s family and on those who live in Jerusalem. They will look at me, whom they have stabbed. Then they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will cry bitterly for him as one cries for a firstborn son. ¹¹On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as intense as the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²The land will mourn, each family by itself: the family of David by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself, and the wives by themselves; ¹³the family of Levi by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and the wives by themselves. ¹⁴All the families that are left ⸤will mourn⸥, each by itself, and the wives by themselves.” 

13TH CHAPTER

¹⸤The Lord declares,⸥ “On that day a fountain will be opened for David’s family and for those who live in Jerusalem to wash away ⸤their⸥ sin and stain. 

False Prophets Will Be Judged

²“On that day,” declares the Lord of Armies, “I will wipe away the names of the idols from the land. They will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the ⸤false⸥ prophets and the unclean^aspirit from the land. 

³“If a man still prophesies, his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will say, ‘You don’t deserve to live because you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will stab him when he prophesies. 

⁴“On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He won’t deceive people by dressing ⸤like a prophet⸥ in a coat made of hair. ⁵He will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I’m a farmer. I’ve owned this land since I was a child.’ 

⁶“When someone asks him, ‘What are these scars on your chest?’ he will answer, ‘I was hurt at my friend’s house.’ 

The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered

⁷“Arise, sword, against my shepherd, 

against the man who is my friend,” declares the Lord of Armies. 

“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. 

Then I will turn my hand against the little ones.” 

⁸The Lord declares, 

“Throughout the land two-thirds will be cut off and die. 

Yet, one-third will be left in it. 

⁹I will bring this third ⸤of the people⸥ through the fire. 

I will refine them as silver is refined. 

I will test them as gold is tested. 

They will call on me, and I will answer them. 

I will say, ‘They are my people.’ 

They will reply, ‘The Lord is our God.’ ” 

14TH CHAPTER

The Lord Will Fight the Nations

¹A day is going to come for the Lord when the loot you have taken will be divided among you. ²I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle. The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people in the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people won’t be taken from the city. 

³Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as he does when he fights a battle. ⁴On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives will be split in two, forming a very large valley from east to west. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and the other half will move toward the south. ⁵Then you will flee to the valley of my mountains, because this valley between the mountains will go as far as Azel.You will flee as you did from the earthquake at the time of King Uzziah of Judah. The Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones will be with him. 

⁶On that day there will be neither heat nor freezing cold.⁷There will be one day—a day known to the Lord—with no difference between day and night. It will be light even…