Zechariah 9–14

Chapter 9

Prophecies against Neighboring Nations

¹The ¹burden of the word of the Lord 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 the Lord),

²And ^aHamath also, which borders on it;

^bTyre and ^cSidon, ¹though ²they are very wise.

³For Tyre built herself a ^afortress

And ^bpiled up silver like dust,

And ^cgold like the mire of the streets.

⁴Behold, the Lord will ^adispossess her

And cast her wealth 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 expectation has been confounded.

Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,

And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

⁶And a ¹mongrel race will dwell in ^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 oppressor will pass over them anymore,

For now I have seen with My eyes.

^9aRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, your ^bking is coming to you;

He is ^1cjust and ^dendowed with salvation,

^eHumble, and mounted on a donkey,

Even on a ^fcolt, the ²foal of a donkey.

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 ^edominion will be from sea to sea,

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

Deliverance of Judah and Ephraim

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

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 restore ^cdouble to you.

¹³For I will ^abend Judah ¹as My bow,

I will fill the bow with Ephraim.

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

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

¹⁴Then the Lord will appear ^aover them,

And His ^barrow will go forth like lightning;

And the Lord ¹God will blow the ^ctrumpet,

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

^15aThe Lord of hosts will defend them.

And they will ^bdevour and trample on the ^csling stones;

And they will drink and be ^dboisterous as with wine;

And they will be filled like a sacrificial basin,

Drenched like the ^ecorners of the altar.

¹⁶And the Lord 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 ^1acomeliness and ^bbeauty will be ²theirs!

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

Chapter 10

God Will Bless Judah and Ephraim

¹Ask ^arain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain—

The Lord who ^bmakes the ¹storm clouds;

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

²For the ^ateraphim speak ¹iniquity,

And the ^bdiviners see ²lying visions

And tell ^cfalse dreams;

They comfort in vain.

Therefore the people ³wander like ^dsheep,

They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

³“My ^aanger is kindled against the shepherds,

And I will punish the ¹male goats;

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

And will make them like His majestic horse in battle.

⁴“From ¹them will come the ^acornerstone,

From them the tent peg,

From them the bow of ^bbattle,

From them every ²ruler, all of them together.

⁵“They will be as mighty men,

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

And they will fight, for the Lord will be with them;

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

⁶“I will ^astrengthen the house of Judah,

And I will ^bsave the house of Joseph,

And I will ^1cbring them back,

Because I have had ^dcompassion on them;

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

For I am the Lord their God and I will ^fanswer them.

⁷“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 the Lord.

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

For I have redeemed them;

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

⁹“When I ¹scatter them among the peoples,

They will ^aremember Me in far countries,

And they with their children will live and come back.

¹⁰“I will ^abring them back 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 they 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 ^astrengthen them in the Lord,

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

Chapter 11

The Doomed Flock

¹Open your doors, O Lebanon,

That a ^afire may feed on your ^bcedars.

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

Because the glorious 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 glory is ruined;

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

For the ¹pride of the Jordan is ruined.

⁴Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to ^aslaughter.

⁵“Those who buy them slay them and ¹go ^aunpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for ^bI have become rich!’ And their ^cown shepherds have no pity on them.

⁶“For I will ^ano longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will ^bcause the men to ¹fall, each into another’s ²power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will ^cnot deliver them from their power.”

⁷So I ^apastured 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 pastured 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 pasture you. What is to ^adie, ¹let it die, and what is to be annihilated, ²let it be annihilated; and ³let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”

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

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

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

¹³Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^apotter, that magnificent 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 the Lord.

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

¹⁵The Lord 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 the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will ^bdevour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

¹⁷“^aWoe to the worthless shepherd

Who leaves the flock!

A ^bsword will be on his arm

And on his right eye!

His ^carm will be totally withered

And his right eye will be ¹blind.”

Chapter 12

Jerusalem to Be Attacked

¹The ¹burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

Thus declares the Lord 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 around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^bJudah.

³“It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^astone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be ^bseverely ¹injured. And all the ^cnations of the earth will be gathered against it.

⁴“In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will ¹watch 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 the Lord of hosts, their God.’

⁶“In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a ^afirepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the ^binhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem.

⁷“The Lord 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 the Lord will ^adefend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^1bis feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^cGod, like the ^dangel of the Lord before them.

⁹“And in that day I will ^1aset about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰“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“The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves;

¹³the…