Zechariah 9–14

CHAPTER 9

Yahweh’s Oracle Against Israel’s Enemies

¹The ¹oracle of the word of Yahweh is against the land of Hadrach, with ^aDamascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward Yahweh),

²And ^aHamath also, which borders on it;

^bAnd Tyre and ^cSidon, ¹because ²they are ^dvery wise.

³So Tyre built herself a ^atight fortification

And ^btied up silver like dust

And ^cfine gold like the mire of the streets.

⁴Behold, the Lord will ^adispossess her

And strike her wealth down into the sea;

And she will be ^bconsumed with fire.

⁵Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.

Gaza too will writhe in great pain;

Also Ekron, for her hope has been put to shame.

Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,

And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

⁶And those of illegitimate birth will inhabit ^aAshdod,

And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.

⁷And I will remove their blood from their mouth

And their detestable things from between their teeth.

Then they also will be a remnant for our God,

And be like a ¹clan in Judah,

And Ekron like a Jebusite.

⁸But I will camp around My house ¹because of an army,

Because of ^ahim who passes by and returns;

And ^bno taskmaster will pass over them anymore,

For now I have seen with My eyes.

The Coming King of Zion

^9aRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Make a loud shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your ^bking is coming to you;

He is ^1crighteous and ^dendowed with salvation,

^2eLowly and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a ^3fcolt, the ⁴foal of a pack animal.

¹⁰I will ^acut off the chariot from Ephraim

And the ^bhorse from Jerusalem;

And the ^cbow of war will be cut off.

And He will speak ^dpeace to the nations;

And His ^ereign will be from sea to sea

And from the ¹River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for you also, because of the ^ablood of your covenant,

I have set your ^bprisoners free from the ¹waterless pit.

¹²Return to the ^1astronghold, O prisoners ²who have the ^bhope;

This very day I am declaring that I will return ^cdouble to you.

¹³For I will ^abend Judah ¹as My bow;

I will fill the bow with Ephraim.

And I will rouse up your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O ^2bGreece;

And I will make you like a ^cmighty man’s sword.

¹⁴Then Yahweh will appear ^aover them,

And His ^barrow will go forth like lightning;

And Lord Yahweh will blow the ^ctrumpet

And will go in the ^dstorm winds of the south.

^15aYahweh of hosts will defend them.

And they will ^bconsume and trample on the ^cstones of a sling;

And they will drink and ^droar as with wine;

And they will be filled like a sacrificial bowl,

Drenched like the ^ecorners of the altar.

¹⁶And Yahweh their God will ^asave them in that day

As the flock of His people;

For they are as the stones of a ^bcrown,

¹Sparkling in His land.

¹⁷For what ^agoodness and ^bwhat beauty will be ¹theirs!

Grain will make the choice men flourish, and new wine the virgins.

CHAPTER 10

Yahweh Will Redeem Judah and Israel

¹Ask ^arain from Yahweh at the time of the ¹late rain—

Yahweh who ^bmakes the ²storm clouds;

And He will give them ^cshowers of rain, the plant in the field to each man.

²For the ^ateraphim speak wickedness,

And the ^bdiviners behold ¹false visions

And speak ^cworthless dreams;

They comfort in vain.

Therefore the people journey like ^dsheep;

They are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

³“My ^aanger burns against the shepherds,

And I will visit punishment upon the ¹male goats;

For Yahweh of hosts has ^bvisited His flock, the house of Judah,

And will make them like His splendid horse in battle.

⁴“From ¹them will come the ^acornerstone,

From ²them the tent peg,

From ³them the bow of ^4bbattle,

From ⁵them every good ⁶taskmaster, all of them together.

⁵“And they will be as mighty men,

^aTreading down the enemy in the mire of the streets in battle;

And they will battle, for Yahweh will be with them;

And the ^briders on horses will be put to shame.

⁶“I will ^amake the house of Judah mighty,

And I will ^bsave the house of Joseph,

And I will ^1ccause them to return,

Because I have had ^dcompassion on them;

And they will be as though I had ^enot rejected them,

For I am Yahweh their God, and I will ^fanswer them.

⁷“And Ephraim will be like a mighty man,

And their heart will be glad as if from wine;

Indeed, their ^achildren will see it and be glad;

¹Their heart will rejoice in Yahweh.

⁸“I will ^awhistle for them to gather them together,

For I have redeemed them;

And they will be as ^bnumerous as they ^cwere ¹before.

⁹“And I will sow them among the peoples,

And they will ^aremember Me in far countries,

And they with their children will live and turn back.

¹⁰“Then I will cause them to ^areturn from the land of Egypt

And gather them from Assyria;

And I will bring them into the land of ^bGilead and Lebanon

¹Until ^cno room can be found for them.

¹¹“And ¹they will pass through the ^asea of distress,

And He will strike the waves in the sea,

So that all the depths of the ^bNile will dry up;

And the pride of ^cAssyria will be brought down,

And the scepter of ^dEgypt will depart.

¹²“And I will ^amake them mighty in Yahweh,

And in His name ^bthey will walk,” declares Yahweh.

CHAPTER 11

Woe to the Worthless Shepherd

¹Open your doors, O Lebanon,

That a ^afire may consume your ^bcedars.

²Wail, O ¹cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

Because the mighty trees have been destroyed;

Wail, O oaks of Bashan,

For the ²impenetrable forest has come down.

³There is a sound of the shepherds’ ^awail,

For their might is destroyed;

There is a ^bsound of the young lions’ roar,

For the ¹pride of the Jordan is destroyed.

⁴Thus says Yahweh my God, “Shepherd the flock doomed to ^aslaughter.

⁵“Those who buy them slaughter them and are not ^aheld guilty, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be Yahweh. Indeed, ^bI have become rich!’ And their ^cown shepherds do not spare them.

⁶“For I will ^ano longer spare the inhabitants of the land,” declares Yahweh; “but behold, I will ^bcause the men to ¹fall, each into another’s hand and into the hand of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will ^cnot deliver them from their hand.”

⁷So I ^ashepherded the flock doomed to slaughter—¹hence the ^bafflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^cstaffs: the one I called ^2dFavor, and the other I called ^3eUnion; so I shepherded the flock.

⁸Then I annihilated the three shepherds in ^aone month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ¹was weary of me.

⁹Then I said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to ^adie, ¹let it die, and what is to be annihilated, ²let it be annihilated; and ³let those who remain consume one another’s flesh.”

¹⁰And I took my staff ^1aFavor and cut it in pieces, to ^2bbreak my covenant which I had cut with all the peoples.

¹¹So it was ¹broken on that day, and ²thus the ^aafflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of Yahweh.

¹²And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my ^awages; but if not, ¹never mind!” So they weighed out ^bthirty ²shekels of silver as my wages.

¹³Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the ^apotter, that valuable price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of Yahweh.

¹⁴Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^1aUnion, to ^bbreak the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then Yahweh said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^1afoolish shepherd.

¹⁶“For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^anot care for those who face annihilation, seek the young, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will ^bconsume the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

¹⁷“^aWoe to the worthless shepherd

Who forsakes the flock!

A ^bsword will be on his arm

And on his right eye!

His ^carm will be totally dried up,

And his right eye will be utterly dimmed.”

CHAPTER 12

Yahweh Will Save

¹The oracle of the word of Yahweh concerning Israel.

Thus declares Yahweh who ^astretches out the heavens, ^blays the foundation of the earth, and ^cforms the spirit of man within him,

²“Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^acup ¹that causes reeling to all the peoples all around. Now the one in siege against Jerusalem will also be against ^bJudah.

³“But it will be in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^astone for all the peoples; all who heave it up will be ^bseverely ¹injured. And all the ^cnations of the earth will be gathered against it.

⁴“In that day,” declares Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will open my eyes to watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

⁵“Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘¹A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through Yahweh of hosts, their God.’

⁶“In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a ^afiery laver among pieces of wood and a fiery torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem will again be ^binhabited in its own place—in Jerusalem.

⁷“Yahweh also will ^asave the tents of Judah first so that the glory of the house of ^bDavid and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah.

⁸“In that day Yahweh will ^adefend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^bstumbles among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^cGod, like the ^dangel of Yahweh before them.

⁹“And it will be in that day, that I will ^aseek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning for the Pierced One

¹⁰“And I will ^apour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem ¹the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have ^bpierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one ^cmourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

¹¹“In that day there will be great ^amourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ¹plain of ²Megiddo.

¹²“And the land will mourn, each family alone; the family of the house of David…