Zechariah 12–13

The Day of Yahweh

12An oracle. The word of Yahweh concerning Israel. “Thus declares^a Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, founds the earth, and forms the spirit of humankind in its midst:^{b 2}‘Look, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding nations; it will also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. ³And then^c on that day I will make Jerusalem a stone weight^d for all the peoples. All those lifting it up will grievously hurt themselves, and all the nations of the earth will assemble against it. ⁴On that day,’ declares^e Yahweh, ‘I will strike every horse with confusion, and the one riding it with madness; but over the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open,^f and I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵And the clans of Judah will say to themselves,^g “The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to us,^h through Yahweh of hosts, their God.”

⁶“ ‘On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a pan of fire among sticks of wood, and like a torch of fire among stalksⁱ of grain, and they will devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, and Jerusalem will be inhabited again in its place, in Jerusalem. ⁷And Yahweh will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants^j of Jerusalem may not be exalted over Judah. ⁸On that day Yahweh will put a shield around the inhabitants^k of Jerusalem, and the one who stumbles among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of Yahweh, before them.^{l 9}And then^m on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations coming against Jerusalem.

¹⁰“ ‘I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitantsⁿ of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as one grieves bitterly over a firstborn. ¹¹On that day the wailing will be great in Jerusalem, like the wailing for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²And the land shall mourn, each clan by itself;^o the clan of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the clan of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹³the clan of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the clan of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴and all those clans remaining, each clan by itself,^p and their wives by themselves.’ ”

13“ ‘On that day a well will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and from impurity.^{a 2}And then,^b on that day,’ declares^c Yahweh of hosts, ‘I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I will banish from the land. ³And then,^d if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, “You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!” And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies. ⁴And then^e on that day, each of the prophets will be ashamed because of his vision when he was prophesying, and they will not put on a cloak of hair in order to deceive, ⁵but he will say, “I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the soil, for a man has acquired me since my youth.”^{f 6}And someone^g shall say to him, “What are these wounds between your arms?”^h and he will say, “Those I have receivedⁱ in the house of the ones who love me.” ’ ”

The Sword Shall Strike the Shepherd

⁷“O sword, awake against my shepherd,

against the man who is my associate,”

declares^j Yahweh of hosts.

“Strike the shepherd,

so that the sheep^k may be scattered,

and I will turn my hand against the small ones.

⁸And then^l in all the land,” declares^m Yahweh,

“two thirdsⁿ will be cut off and perish,

and one third will be left alive^o in it.

⁹And I will bring the remaining third into the fire,

and I will refine them like one refines silver,

and I will test them like one tests gold.

They^p will call my name,

and I will answer them.^q

I will say, ‘They^r are my people,’

and they^s will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ ”