Zechariah 8–14

The Lord Will Bless Jerusalem

8The Lord All-Powerful spoke his word, saying, ²This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “I have a very strong love for Jerusalem. My strong love for her is like a fire burning in me.”

³This is what the Lord says: “I will return to Jerusalem and live in it. Then it will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord All-Powerful will be called the Holy Mountain.”

⁴This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Old men and old women will again sit along Jerusalem’s streets, each carrying a cane because of age. ⁵And the streets will be filled with boys and girls playing.”

⁶This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Those who are left alive then may think it is too difficult to happen, but it is not too difficult for me,” says the Lord All-Powerful. ⁷This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “I will save my people from countries in the east and west. ⁸I will bring them back, and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their good and loyal God.”

⁹This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Work hard, you who are hearing these words today. The prophets spoke these words when the foundation was laid for the house of the Lord All-Powerful, for the building of the Temple. ¹⁰Before that time there was no money to hire people or animals. People could not safely come and go because of the enemies; I had turned everyone against his neighbor. ¹¹But I will not do to these people who are left what I did in the past,” says the Lord All-Powerful.

¹²“They will plant their seeds in peace, their grapevines will have fruit, the ground will give good crops, and the sky will send rain. I will give all this to the people who are left alive. ¹³Judah and Israel, your names have been used as curses in other nations. But I will save you, and you will become a blessing. So don’t be afraid; work hard.”

¹⁴This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “When your ancestors made me angry, I planned to punish you. I did not change my mind,” says the Lord All-Powerful. ¹⁵“But now I will do something different. I am planning to do good to Jerusalem and Judah. So don’t be afraid. ¹⁶These are the things you should do: Tell each other the truth. In the courts judge with truth and complete fairness. ¹⁷Do not make plans to hurt your neighbors, and don’t love false promises. I hate all these things,” says the Lord.

¹⁸The Lord All-Powerful spoke his word to me again. ¹⁹This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “The special days when you fast in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will become good, joyful, happy feasts in Judah. But you must love truth and peace.”

²⁰This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Many people from many cities will still come to Jerusalem. ²¹People from one city will go and say to those from another city, ‘We are going to pray to the Lord and to ask the Lord All-Powerful for help. Come and go with us.’ ²²Many people and powerful nations will come to worship the Lord All-Powerful in Jerusalem and to pray to the Lord for help.”

²³This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “At that time, ten men from different countries will come and take hold of a Judean by his coat. They will say to him, ‘Let us go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.’ ”

Punishment on Israel’s Enemies

9This message is the word of the Lord.

The message is against the land of Hadrach

and the city of Damascus.

The tribes of Israel and all people

belong to the Lord.

²The message is also against the city of Hamath, on the border,

and against Tyre and Sidon, with their skill.

³Tyre has built a strong wall for herself.

She has piled up silver like dust

and gold like the mud in the streets.

⁴But the Lord will take away all she has

and destroy her power on the sea.

That city will be destroyed by fire.

⁵The city of Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.

The people of Gaza will shake with fear,

and the people of Ekron will lose hope.

No king will be left in Gaza,

and no one will live in Ashkelon anymore.

⁶Foreigners will live in Ashdod,

and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.

⁷I will stop them from drinking blood

and from eating forbidden food.

Those left alive will belong to God.

They will be leaders in Judah,

and Ekron will become like the Jebusites.

⁸I will protect my Temple

from armies who would come or go.

No one will hurt my people again,

because now I am watching them.

The King Is Coming

⁹Rejoice greatly, people of Jerusalem!

Shout for joy, people of Jerusalem!

Your king is coming to you.

He does what is right, and he saves.

He is gentle and riding on a donkey,

on the colt of a donkey.

¹⁰I will take away the chariots from Ephraim

and the horses from Jerusalem.

The bows used in war will be broken.

The king will talk to the nations about peace.

His kingdom will go from sea to sea,

and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for you, because of the blood of the agreement with you

I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

¹²You prisoners who have hope,

return to your place of safety.

Today I am telling you

that I will give you back twice as much as before.

¹³I will use Judah like a bow

and Ephraim like the arrows.

Jerusalem, I will use your men

to fight the men of Greece.

I will use you like a warrior’s sword.

¹⁴Then the Lord will appear above them,

and his arrows will shoot like lightning.

The Lord God will blow the trumpet,

and he will march in the storms of the south.

¹⁵The Lord All-Powerful will protect them;

they will destroy the enemy with slingshots.

They will drink and shout like drunks.

They will be filled like a bowl

used for sprinkling blood at the corners of the altar.

¹⁶On that day the Lord their God will save them

as if his people were sheep.

They will shine in his land

like jewels in a crown.

¹⁷They will be so pretty and beautiful.

The young men will grow strong on the grain

and the young women on new wine.

The Lord’s Promises

10Ask the Lord for rain during the springtime rains.

The Lord is the one who makes the clouds.

He sends the showers

and gives everyone green fields.

²Idols tell lies;

fortune-tellers see false visions

and tell about false dreams.

The comfort they give is worth nothing.

So the people are like lost sheep.

They are abused, because there is no shepherd.

³The Lord says, “I am angry at my shepherds,

and I will punish the leaders.

I, the Lord All-Powerful, care

for my flock, the people of Judah.

I will make them like my proud war horses.

⁴From Judah will come the cornerstone,

and the tent peg,

the battle bow,

and every ruler.

⁵Together they will be like soldiers

marching to battle through muddy streets.

The Lord is with them,

so they will fight and defeat the horsemen.

⁶“I will strengthen the people of Judah

and save the people of Joseph.

I will bring them back,

because I care about them.

It will be as though

I had never left them,

because I am the Lord their God,

and I will answer them.

⁷The people of Ephraim will be strong like soldiers;

they will be glad as when they have drunk wine.

Their children will see it and rejoice;

they will be happy in the Lord.

⁸I will call my people

and gather them together.

I will save them,

and they will grow in number as they grew in number before.

⁹I have scattered them among the nations,

but in those faraway places, they will remember me.

They and their children will live and return.

¹⁰I will bring them back from the land of Egypt

and gather them from Assyria.

I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon

until there isn’t enough room for them all.

¹¹They will come through the sea of trouble.

The waves of the sea will be calm,

and the Nile River will dry up.

I will defeat Assyria’s pride

and destroy Egypt’s power over other countries.

¹²I will make my people strong,

and they will live as I say,” says the Lord.

11Lebanon, open your gates

so fire may burn your cedar trees. ⁿ

²Cry, pine trees, because the cedar has fallen,

because the tall trees are ruined.

Cry, oaks in Bashan,

because the mighty forest has been cut down.

³Listen to the shepherds crying

because their rich pastures are destroyed.

Listen to the lions roaring

because the lovely land of the Jordan River is ruined.

The Two Shepherds

⁴This is what the Lord my God says: “Feed the flock that are about to be killed. ⁵Their buyers kill them and are not punished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich.’ Even the shepherds don’t feel sorry for their sheep. ⁶I don’t feel sorry anymore for the people of this country,” says the Lord. “I will let everyone be under the power of his neighbor and king. They will bring trouble to the country, and I will not save anyone from them.”

⁷So I fed the flock about to be killed, particularly the weakest ones. Then I took two sticks; I called one Pleasant and the other Union, and I fed the flock. ⁸In one month I got rid of three shepherds. The flock did not pay attention to me, and I got impatient with them. ⁹I said, “I will no longer take care of you like a shepherd. Let those that are dying die, and let those that are to be destroyed be destroyed. Let those that are left eat each other.”

¹⁰Then I broke the stick named Pleasant to break the agreement God made with all the nations. ¹¹That day it was broken. The weak ones in the flock who were watching me knew this message was from the Lord.

¹²Then I said, “If you want to pay me, pay me. If not, then don’t.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

¹³The Lord said to me, “Throw the money to the potter.” That is how little they thought I was worth. ⁿ So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.

¹⁴Then I broke the second stick, named Union, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then the Lord said to me, “Get the things used by a foolish shepherd again, ¹⁶because I am going to get a new shepherd for the country. He will not care for the dying sheep, or look for the young ones, or heal the injured ones, or feed the healthy. But he will eat the best sheep and tear off their hoofs.

¹⁷“How terrible it will be for the useless shepherd

who abandoned the flock.

A sword will strike his…