The Lord Will Give Salvation
1 The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a ncup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 On that day, declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah olike a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
7 “And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will pprotect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, going before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Him Whom They Have Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and qpleas for mercy, so that, when rthey look on me, on him whom they have pierced, sthey shall mourn for him, as one mourns tfor an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, each family1 by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
1 “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to ucleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
Idolatry Cut Off
2 “And on that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the vnames of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. 3 And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, w‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a xhairy cloak in order to deceive, 5 but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.’2 6 And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’3 he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Struck
7 “Awake, O sword, against my yshepherd,
against the man who stands next to me,”
declares the Lord of hosts.
z“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land, declares the Lord,
atwo thirds shall be cut off and perish,
and one third shall be left alive.
9 And I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them bas one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
They will call upon my name,
cand I will answer them.
dI will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
The Coming Day of the Lord
1 Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the ehouses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem fon the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the gearthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then hthe Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.4
6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost.5 7 And there shall be a unique6 day, iwhich is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.
8 On that day jliving waters shall kflow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea7 and half of them to the western sea.8 It shall continue in summer as in winter.
9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day lthe Lord will be one and his name one.
10 The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction.9 Jerusalem shall dwell in msecurity.
12 And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
13 And on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. 14 Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem.10 And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 15 And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the nFeast of Booths. 17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. 18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain;11 there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. 19 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
20 And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, o“Holy to the Lord.” And the ppots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. 21 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader12 in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.
14 And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of eHaggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia; 15 and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the fdedication of this house of God with joy. 17 They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel g12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they set the priests hin their divisions and the Levites iin their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, jas it is written in the Book of Moses.
Passover Celebrated
19 On the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kkept the Passover. 20 For the priests and the Levites had lpurified themselves together; all of them were clean. So mthey slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. 21 It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and also by every one who had joined them and nseparated himself from the ouncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. 22 And they kept the pFeast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
He Heals the Brokenhearted
1 Praise the Lord!
hFor it is good to sing praises to our God;
ifor it is pleasant,1 and a song of jpraise is fitting.
2 kThe Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he lgathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He mheals the nbrokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 oHe determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is pbeyond measure.
6 qThe Lord lifts up the humble;2
he rcasts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
smake melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds;
the prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 uHe gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord vtakes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who whope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders;
he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives xsnow like wool;
he scatters yfrost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of zice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
ahe makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 bHe declares his word to Jacob,
his cstatutes and rules3 to Israel.
20 dHe has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.4
Praise the Lord!
