Zechariah 9:1–12:14
9 A prophecy:y
The word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrak
and will come to rest on Damascusz—
for the eyes of all people and all the tribes of Israel
are on the Lord—a
2 and on Hamatha too, which borders on it,
and on Tyreb and Sidon,c though they are very skillful.
3 Tyre has built herself a stronghold;
she has heaped up silver like dust,
and gold like the dirt of the streets.d
4 But the Lord will take away her possessions
and destroye her power on the sea,
and she will be consumed by fire.f
5 Ashkelong will see it and fear;
Gaza will writhe in agony,
and Ekron too, for her hope will wither.
Gaza will lose her king
and Ashkelon will be deserted.
6 A mongrel people will occupy Ashdod,
and I will put an endh to the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will take the blood from their mouths,
the forbidden food from between their teeth.
Those who are left will belong to our Godi
and become a clan in Judah,
and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.j
8 But I will encampk at my temple
to guard it against marauding forces.l
Never again will an oppressor overrun my people,
for now I am keeping watch.m
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!n
Shout,o Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,p
righteous and victorious,q
lowly and riding on a donkey,r
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.s
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.t
He will proclaim peaceu to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the Riverb to the ends of the earth.v
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenantw with you,
I will free your prisonersx from the waterless pit.y
12 Return to your fortress,z you prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twicea as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bowb
and fill it with Ephraim.c
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece,d
and make you like a warrior’s sword.e
14 Then the Lord will appear over them;f
his arrow will flash like lightning.g
The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet;h
he will march in the stormsi of the south,
15 and the Lord Almighty will shieldj them.
They will destroy
and overcome with slingstones.k
They will drink and roar as with wine;l
they will be full like a bowlm
used for sprinklingc the cornersn of the altar.
16 The Lord their God will save his people on that dayo
as a shepherd saves his flock.
They will sparkle in his land
like jewels in a crown.p
17 How attractive and beautiful they will be!
Grain will make the young men thrive,
and new wine the young women.
10 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rainq to all people,
and plants of the fieldr to everyone.
2 The idolss speak deceitfully,
divinerst see visions that lie;
they tell dreamsu that are false,
they give comfort in vain.v
Therefore the people wander like sheep
oppressed for lack of a shepherd.w
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;x
for the Lord Almighty will care
for his flock, the people of Judah,
and make them like a proud horse in battle.y
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,z
from him the tent peg,a
from him the battle bow,b
from him every ruler.
5 Together theya will be like warriors in battle
trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.c
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.d
6 “I will strengthene Judah
and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
because I have compassionf on them.g
They will be as though
I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God
and I will answerh them.
7 The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
and their hearts will be glad as with wine.i
Their children will see it and be joyful;
their hearts will rejoicej in the Lord.
8 I will signalk for them
and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
they will be as numerousl as before.
9 Though I scatter them among the peoples,
yet in distant lands they will remember me.m
They and their children will survive,
and they will return.
10 I will bring them back from Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.n
I will bring them to Gileado and Lebanon,
and there will not be roomp enough for them.
11 They will pass through the sea of trouble;
the surging sea will be subdued
and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.q
Assyria’s prider will be brought down
and Egypt’s scepters will pass away.t
12 I will strengthenu them in the Lord
and in his name they will live securely,v”
declares the Lord.
11 Open your doors, Lebanon,w
so that firex may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaksy of Bashan;
the dense forestz has been cut down!a
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;b
the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!c
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.d 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them.e 6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighborsf and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”g
7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter,h particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detestedi me, and I grew weary of them 9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish.j Let those who are left eatk one another’s flesh.”
10 Then I took my staff called Favorl and broke it, revokingm the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.n
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silvero and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.p
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,q
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his armr and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered,
his right eye totally blinded!”s
Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed
12 A prophecy:t The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens,u who lays the foundation of the earth,v and who forms the human spirit within a person,w declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cupx that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling.y Judahz will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nationsa of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rockb for all the nations. All who try to move it will injurec themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.d 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong,e because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepotf in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consumeg all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intacth in her place.
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.i 8 On that day the Lord will shieldj those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblestk among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God,l like the angel of the Lord going beforem them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nationsn that attack Jerusalem.o
Mourning for the One They Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirita p of grace and supplication.q They will look onb me, the one they have pierced,r and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child,s and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.t 11 On that day the weepingu in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.v 12 The land will mourn,w each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.x