12This message is the word of the Lord to Israel. This is what the Lord says, who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth, and put the human spirit within: ²“I will make Jerusalem like a cup of poison to the nations around her. They will come and attack Jerusalem and Judah. ³One day all the nations on earth will come together to attack Jerusalem, but I will make it like a heavy rock; anyone who tries to move it will get hurt. ⁴At that time I will confuse every horse and cause its rider to go crazy,” says the Lord. “I will watch over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the enemies. ⁵Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord All-Powerful is their God.’

⁶“At that time I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire burning a stack of wood or like a fire burning straw. They will destroy all the people around them left and right. But the people of Jerusalem will remain safe.

⁷“The Lord will save the homes of Judah first so that the honor given to David’s family and to the people of Jerusalem won’t be greater than the honor given to Judah. ⁸At that time the Lord will protect the people in Jerusalem. Then even the weakest of them will be strong like David. And the family of David will be like God, like an angel of the Lord in front of them. ⁹At that time I will go to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Crying for the One They Stabbed

¹⁰“I will pour out on David’s family and the people in Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and mercy. They will look at me, the one they have stabbed, and they will cry like someone crying over the death of an only child. They will be as sad as someone who has lost a firstborn son. ¹¹At that time there will be much crying in Jerusalem, like the crying for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²The land will cry, each family by itself: the family of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, ¹³the family of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Shimei by itself and their wives by themselves, ¹⁴and all the rest of the families by themselves and their wives by themselves.

13“At that time a fountain will be open for David’s descendants and for the people of Jerusalem to cleanse them of their sin and uncleanness.”

²The Lord All-Powerful says, “At that time I will get rid of the names of the idols from the land; no one will remember them anymore. I will also remove the prophets and unclean spirits from the land. ³If a person continues to prophesy, his own father and mother, the ones who gave birth to him, will tell him, ‘You have told lies using the Lord’s name, so you must die.’ When he prophesies, his own father and mother who gave birth to him will stab him.

⁴“At that time the prophets will be ashamed of their visions and prophecies. They won’t wear the prophet’s clothes made of hair to trick people. ⁵Each of them will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer and have been a farmer since I was young.’ ⁶But someone will ask, ‘What are the deep cuts on your body?’ And each will answer, ‘I was hurt at my friend’s house.’

The Shepherd Is Killed

⁷“Sword, hit the shepherd.

Attack the man who is my friend,”

says the Lord All-Powerful.

“Kill the shepherd,

and the sheep will scatter,

and I will punish the little ones.”

⁸The Lord says, “Two-thirds of the people

through all the land will die. They will be gone,

and one-third will be left.

⁹The third that is left I will test with fire,

purifying them like silver,

testing them like gold.

Then they will call on me,

and I will answer them.

I will say, ‘You are my people,’

and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’ ”

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