Zechariah 9–14

Israel Defended Against Enemies

9The ¹burden of the word of the Lord—

Against the land of Hadrach,

And ^aDamascus its resting place

(For ^bthe eyes of men

And all the tribes of Israel

Are on the Lord);

²Also against ^cHamath, which borders on it,

And against ^dTyre and ^eSidon, though they are very ^fwise.

³For Tyre built herself a tower,

Heaped up silver like the dust,

And gold like the mire of the streets.

⁴Behold, ^gthe Lord will cast her out;

He will destroy ^hher power in the sea,

And she will be devoured by fire.

⁵Ashkelon shall see it and fear;

Gaza also shall be very sorrowful;

And ⁱEkron, for He dried up her expectation.

The king shall perish from Gaza,

And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

⁶“A ²mixed race shall settle ^jin Ashdod,

And I will cut off the pride of the ^kPhilistines.

⁷I will take away the blood from his mouth,

And the abominations from between his teeth.

But he who remains, even he shall be for our God,

And shall be like a leader in Judah,

And Ekron like a Jebusite.

^8lI will camp around My house

Because of the army,

Because of him who passes by and him who returns.

No more shall an oppressor pass through them,

For now I have seen with My eyes.

The Coming King

⁹“Rejoice ^mgreatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Behold, ⁿyour King is coming to you;

He is just and having salvation,

Lowly and riding on a donkey,

A colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁰I ^owill cut off the chariot from Ephraim

And the horse from Jerusalem;

The ^pbattle bow shall be cut off.

He shall speak peace to the nations;

His dominion shall be ^q‘from sea to sea,

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

God Will Save His People

¹¹“As for you also,

Because of the blood of your covenant,

I will set your ^rprisoners free from the waterless pit.

¹²Return to the stronghold,

^sYou prisoners of hope.

Even today I declare

That I will restore ^tdouble to you.

¹³For I have bent Judah, My bow,

Fitted the bow with Ephraim,

And raised up your sons, O Zion,

Against your sons, O Greece,

And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”

¹⁴Then the Lord will be seen over them,

And ^uHis arrow will go forth like lightning.

The Lord God will blow the trumpet,

And go ^vwith whirlwinds from the south.

¹⁵The Lord of hosts will ^wdefend them;

They shall devour and subdue with slingstones.

They shall drink and roar as if with wine;

They shall be filled with blood like ³basins,

Like the corners of the altar.

¹⁶The Lord their God will ^xsave them in that day,

As the flock of His people.

For ^ythey shall be like the ⁴jewels of a crown,

^zLifted like a banner over His land—

¹⁷For ^ahow great is ⁵its goodness

And how great its ^bbeauty!

^cGrain shall make the young men thrive,

And new wine the young women.

Restoration of Judah and Israel

10Ask ^athe Lord for ^brain

In ^cthe time of the ¹latter rain.

The Lord will make ²flashing clouds;

He will give them showers of rain,

Grass in the field for everyone.

²For the ^didols ³speak delusion;

The diviners envision ^elies,

And tell false dreams;

They ^fcomfort in vain.

Therefore the people wend their way like ^gsheep;

They are ⁴in trouble ^hbecause there is no shepherd.

³“My anger is kindled against the ⁱshepherds,

^jAnd I will punish the ⁵goatherds.

For the Lord of hosts ^kwill visit His flock,

The house of Judah,

And ^lwill make them as His royal horse in the battle.

⁴From him comes ^mthe cornerstone,

From him ⁿthe tent peg,

From him the battle bow,

From him every ⁶ruler together.

⁵They shall be like mighty men,

Who ^otread down their enemies

In the mire of the streets in the battle.

They shall fight because the Lord is with them,

And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.

⁶“I will strengthen the house of Judah,

And I will save the house of Joseph.

^pI will bring them back,

Because I ^qhave mercy on them.

They shall be as though I had not cast them aside;

For I am the Lord their God,

And I ^rwill hear them.

⁷Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man,

And their ^sheart shall rejoice as if with wine.

Yes, their children shall see it and be glad;

Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.

⁸I will ^twhistle for them and gather them,

For I will redeem them;

^uAnd they shall increase as they once increased.

⁹“I ^vwill ⁷sow them among the peoples,

And they shall ^wremember Me in far countries;

They shall live, together with their children,

And they shall return.

^10xI will also bring them back from the land of Egypt,

And gather them from Assyria.

I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,

^yUntil no more room is found for them.

^11zHe shall pass through the sea with affliction,

And strike the waves of the sea:

All the depths of ⁸the River shall dry up.

Then ^athe pride of Assyria shall be brought down,

And ^bthe scepter of Egypt shall depart.

¹²“So I will strengthen them in the Lord,

And ^cthey shall walk up and down in His name,”

Says the Lord.

Desolation of Israel

11Open ^ayour doors, O Lebanon,

That fire may devour your cedars.

²Wail, O cypress, for the ^bcedar has fallen,

Because the mighty trees are ruined.

Wail, O oaks of Bashan,

^cFor the thick forest has come down.

³There is the sound of wailing ^dshepherds!

For their glory is in ruins.

There is the sound of roaring lions!

For the ¹pride of the Jordan is in ruins.

Prophecy of the Shepherds

⁴Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, ⁵whose owners slaughter them and ^efeel no guilt; those who sell them ^fsay, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do ^gnot pity them. ⁶For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall ²attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

⁷So I fed the flock for slaughter, ³in particular ^hthe poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called ⁴Beauty, and the other I called ⁵Bonds; and I fed the flock. ⁸I ⁶dismissed the three shepherds ⁱin one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not feed you. ^jLet what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰And I took my staff, ⁷Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was broken on that day. Thus ^kthe ⁸poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²Then I said to them, “If it is ⁹agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they ^lweighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^mpotter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. ¹⁴Then I cut in two my other staff, ¹Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the Lord said to me, ⁿ“Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in ^opieces.

¹⁷“Woe ^pto the worthless shepherd,

Who leaves the flock!

A sword shall be against his arm

And against his right eye;

His arm shall completely wither,

And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”

The Coming Deliverance of Judah

12The ¹burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, ^awho stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and ^bforms the spirit of man within him: ²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem ^ca cup of ²drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. ^3dAnd it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem ^ea very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. ⁴In that day,” says the Lord, ^f“I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’ ⁶In that day I will make the governors of Judah ^glike a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.

⁷“The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. ⁸In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. ⁹It shall be in that day that I will seek to ^hdestroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning for the Pierced One

¹⁰ⁱ“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will ^jlook on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him ^kas one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. ¹¹In that day there shall be a great ^lmourning in Jerusalem, ^mlike the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of ³Megiddo. ¹²ⁿAnd the land shall 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 ^oNathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹³the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

Idolatry Cut Off

13“In that ^aday ^ba fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for ^cuncleanness.

²“It shall be in that day,” says the Lord of hosts, “that I will ^dcut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered.…