Zechariah 10–12

The Lord Will Care for Judah

10Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;

it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.

He gives showers of rain^q to all people,

and plants of the field^r to everyone.

²The idols^s speak deceitfully,

diviners^t see visions that lie;

they tell dreams^u 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

⁴From Judah will come the cornerstone,^z

from him the tent peg,^a

from him the battle bow,^b

from him every ruler.

⁵Together they^a 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 strengthen^e Judah

and save the tribes of Joseph.

I will restore them

because I have compassion^f on them.^g

They will be as though

I had not rejected them,

for I am the Lord their God

and I will answer^h them.

⁷The 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 rejoice^j in the Lord.

⁸I will signal^k for them

and gather them in.

Surely I will redeem them;

they will be as numerous^l as before.

⁹Though 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.

¹⁰I will bring them back from Egypt

and gather them from Assyria.ⁿ

I will bring them to Gilead^o and Lebanon,

and there will not be room^p enough for them.

¹¹They 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 pride^r will be brought down

and Egypt’s scepter^s will pass away.^t

¹²I will strengthen^u them in the Lord

and in his name they will live securely,^v”

declares the Lord.

11Open your doors, Lebanon,^w

so that fire^x may devour your cedars!

²Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;

the stately trees are ruined!

Wail, oaks^y of Bashan;

the dense forest^z has been cut down!^a

³Listen 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

Two Shepherds

⁴This 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 neighbors^f and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”^g

⁷So 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. ⁸In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.

The flock detestedⁱ me, and I grew weary of them ⁹and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish.^j Let those who are left eat^k one another’s flesh.”

¹⁰Then I took my staff called Favor^l and broke it, revoking^m the covenant I had made with all the nations. ¹¹It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.

¹²I 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

¹³And 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 silver^o and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.^p

¹⁴Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For 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 arm^r and his right eye!

May his arm be completely withered,

his right eye totally blinded!”^s

Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed

12A 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 cup^x that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling.^y Judah^z will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. ³On that day, when all the nations^a of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock^b for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure^c themselves. ⁴On 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 firepot^f in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume^g all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact^h 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 shield^j those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest^k among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God,^l like the angel of the Lord going before^m them. ⁹On 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 spirit^ap of grace and supplication.^q They will look on^b 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 weeping^u 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, ¹³the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴and all the rest of the clans and their wives.^x