Zechariah 9–14

9An oracle. The word of Yahweh is against the land of Hadrach,

and Damascus is its resting place.

For to Yahweh belongs the eye of humankind,^a

and all the tribes of Israel,

²and also Hamath, which borders on it;

Tyre and Sidon—yes, they are very wise!^b

³Tyre has built a fortification for itself,^c

and it heaped up silver like dust,

and gold like the mud of the streets.

⁴Look! The Lord will drive it^d out

and will hurl its^e outer ramparts into the sea,

and it^f will be consumed by fire.

⁵Ashkelon will see and will be afraid,

and Gaza will writhe exceedingly,

and Ekron also, because its hope is ruined.^g

And the king from Gaza will perish,

and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

⁶A mongrel people^h will dwell in Ashdod,

and I will cut down the pride of the Philistines.

⁷I will remove itsⁱ blood from its^j mouth,

and its^k abominations from between its^l teeth.

And it^m too will be a remnant for our God;

and itⁿ will be like a tribal chief^o in Judah,

and Ekron will be like the Jebusite.

⁸But I will encamp at my temple^p like a guard,

against those crossing through and returning;

no oppressor will cross through them again,

for now I have seen with my own eyes.

⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Look! Your king comes to you;

he is righteous and victorious,

humble and riding on a donkey,

and on a male donkey, the foal of^q a female donkey!

¹⁰And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,

and the horse from Jerusalem;

the battle bow will be cut down,

and he will announce peace to the nations.

His dominion will be from sea to sea,

and from the River^r to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant,

I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.^s

¹²Return to the fortress,

O prisoners of hope;

today I am declaring that I will repay you double.

¹³For I have bent Judah as my bow;

I have set Ephraim as an arrow.

I will set in motion your sons, O Zion,

against your sons, O Javan.^t

I will wield you like the sword of a warrior.

¹⁴Then Yahweh will appear over them,

and his arrow will go forth like lightning;

and my Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet,

and he shall go out in the storm winds of the south.

¹⁵Yahweh of hosts will defend them,

and they will devour and subdue the slingstones;^u

they will drink, they will make noise^v like wine,

and they will be full like the sacrificial basin,^w

drenched like the corners of an altar.

¹⁶And Yahweh their God will save them on that day,

as the flock of his people;

for they are like the stones of a diadem,

glittering on his land.

¹⁷For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty!

Grain will make the young men thrive,

and new wine the young women.

Yahweh Gives Rain

10Ask rain from Yahweh in the season of the spring rain—

Yahweh, who makes storm clouds,

and he gives showers of rain to them,

to everyone vegetation in the field.

²Because the household gods^a speak deceit,

and those who practice divination see a lie,

and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain.

Therefore the people wander like sheep;^b

they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

³My anger burns^c against the shepherds,

and I will punish the leaders,^d

because Yahweh of hosts watches over his flock,^e

the house of Judah;

and he will make them like his majestic horse in war.

⁴From them^f the cornerstone will go out,

from them^g the tent peg,

from them^h the battle bow,

from themⁱ every ruler,

all together.

⁵And they will be like warriors,

trampling in the mud of the streets in the battle.

They will fight, because Yahweh is with them,

and they will put to shame the riders on horses.

⁶And I will strengthen the house of Judah,

and the house of Joseph I will save.

And I will bring them back, because I have compassion on them,

and they will be as if I had not rejected them,

for I am Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.

⁷And the people of Ephraim will be like a warrior,

and their heart will be glad as with wine.

And their children will see and rejoice;

their heart will shout in exultation in Yahweh.

⁸I will whistle to them and gather them,

for I have redeemed them,

and they will become numerous as they have been numerous before.

⁹Though I sow^j them among the nations,

in the distant places they will remember me,

and they will stay alive with their children, and they will return.

¹⁰And I will bring them back from the land of Egypt,

and from Assyria I will gather them.

To the land of Gilead and Lebanon I will bring them,

until no room will be found for them there.

¹¹And he^k will pass through the sea of distress,

and he will strike the waves of the sea,

and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.

The pride of Assyria will be brought low,

and the scepter of Egypt will depart.

¹²I will make them strong in Yahweh,

and in his name they will walk,

declares^l Yahweh.

11Open your doors, O Lebanon,

so that fire will devour your cedars!

²Wail, O juniper,^a for the cedar has fallen,

for the magnificent trees are ruined!

Wail, oaks of Bashan,

for the impenetrable forest has come down!

³Listen to the wailing of the shepherds,

for their splendor is ruined!

Listen to the roar of the young lions,

for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

The Two Shepherds

⁴Thus says Yahweh my God: “Shepherd the flock^b doomed to slaughter. ⁵The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I have become rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land,” declares^c Yahweh. “Look, I am going to cause humankind to fall, each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they will devastate the land, and I will not deliver anyone from their hand.”

⁷And I shepherded the flock^d doomed to slaughter, even^e the afflicted^f of the flock.^g I took two staffs, one I called Kindness, and the other I called Unity, and I shepherded the flock.^{h 8}And I got rid of three shepherds in one month, for I grew impatientⁱ with them, and they also became tired of me.^{j 9}So I said, “I will not shepherd you! The one dying will die, and the one to be destroyed will be destroyed. And the ones remaining, let them devour the flesh of each other.”^{k 10}And I took my staff Kindness and broke it, to break my covenant that I had made^l with all the peoples. ¹¹And it was broken on that day. Then the afflicted^m of the flock,ⁿ the ones who were watching me, knew that it was the word of Yahweh. ¹²And I said to them, “If it seems right to you,^o give me my wages, but if not, keep them.”^p And they weighed out my wages, thirty silver shekels. ¹³And Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter,”^q this noble price^r at which I was valued by them!” So I took the thirty silver shekels and I threw them to the potter^s in the house of Yahweh. ¹⁴Then I broke my second staff Unity to break the family ties between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And Yahweh said to me, “Take again the implements^t of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For look, I am raising up a shepherd in the land who will not attend to the ones that are perishing; he will not seek the young man,^u he will not heal the ones that are crushed and he will not sustain the healthy ones; he will devour the flesh of the fattened ones^v and tear apart even their hoofs.

¹⁷“Woe, my worthless shepherd

who deserts the flock!^w

May a sword fall on his arm

and on his right eye!^x

May his arm wither completely

and his right eye^y be utterly blinded!”

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…