Zechariah 8; Zechariah 9–14

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Zechariah 8

The Coming Peace and Prosperity of Zion

And the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying, Thus says the Lord of hosts: sI am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. Thus says the Lord: tI have returned to Zion and uwill dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, vand Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, wand the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. Thus says the Lord of hosts: xOld men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts: yIf it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, zshould it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the Lord of hosts? Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, aI will save my people bfrom the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. cAnd they shall be my people, and I will be their God, din faithfulness and in righteousness.

Thus says the Lord of hosts: eLet your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of fthe prophets who were present on gthe day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. 10 For before those days hthere was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor. 11 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the Lord of hosts. 12 iFor there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, jand the heavens shall give their dew. kAnd I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 13 And as lyou have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, mso will I save you, and nyou shall be a blessing. oFear not, but elet your hands be strong.

14 For thus says the Lord of hosts: pAs I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the Lord of hosts, 15 so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; ofear not. 16 These are the things that you shall do: qSpeak the truth to one another; rrender in your gates judgments sthat are true and make for peace; 17 tdo not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and ulove no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.

18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, 19 Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the vfourth month and the fast of the wfifth and the fast of the xseventh and the fast of the ytenth shall be to the house of Judah zseasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love atruth and peace.

20 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. 21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, bLet us go at once cto entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going. 22 bMany peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and cto entreat the favor of the Lord. 23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days dten men efrom the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, Let us go with you, for fwe have heard that God is with you.


Zechariah 9–14

Judgment on Israel’s Enemies

The oracle of the word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach

and gDamascus is its resting place.

For the Lord has an eye on mankind

and on all the tribes of Israel,1

hand on Hamath also, which borders on it,

iTyre and iSidon, though jthey are very wise.

Tyre has built herself ka rampart

and lheaped up silver like dust,

and fine gold like the mud of the streets.

But behold, the Lord will strip her of her possessions

and strike down mher power on the sea,

and nshe shall be devoured by fire.

oAshkelon shall see it, and be afraid;

Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish;

Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded.

The king shall perish from Gaza;

Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;

pa mixed people2 shall dwell in Ashdod,

and I will cut off the pride of Philistia.

I will take away qits blood from its mouth,

and rits abominations from between its teeth;

sit too shall be a remnant for our God;

it shall be like ta clan in Judah,

and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.

Then uI will encamp at my house as a guard,

vso that none shall march to and fro;

wno oppressor shall again march over them,

xfor now I see with my own eyes.

The Coming King of Zion

yRejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!

Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!

zBehold, ayour king is coming to you;

righteous and having salvation is he,

bhumble and mounted on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

10  cI will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

and dthe war horse from Jerusalem;

and the battle bow shall be cut off,

and ehe shall speak peace to the nations;

fhis rule shall be from sea to sea,

and from gthe River3 to the ends of the earth.

11  As for you also, because of hthe blood of my covenant with you,

iI will set your prisoners free from jthe waterless pit.

12  Return to your stronghold, O kprisoners of hope;

today I declare that lI will restore to you double.

13  For mI have bent Judah as my bow;

I have made Ephraim its arrow.

I will stir up your sons, O Zion,

against your sons, nO Greece,

and wield you like a warrior’s sword.

The Lord Will Save His People

14  Then the Lord will appear over them,

and ohis arrow will go forth like lightning;

pthe Lord God will sound the trumpet

and will march forth in qthe whirlwinds rof the south.

15  The Lord of hosts swill protect them,

and tthey shall devour, uand tread down the sling stones,

and vthey shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine,

and be full like a bowl,

drenched wlike the corners of the altar.

16  On that day the Lord their God will save them,

as xthe flock of his people;

for ylike the jewels of a crown

they shall shine on his land.

17  zFor how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty!

aGrain shall make the young men flourish,

and new wine the young women.

The Restoration for Judah and Israel

Ask rain bfrom the Lord

in the season of cthe spring rain,

from the Lord dwho makes the storm clouds,

and ehe will give them showers of rain,

to everyone the vegetation in the field.

For fthe household gods gutter nonsense,

and the diviners see lies;

hthey tell false dreams

and give empty consolation.

Therefore ithe people wander like sheep;

they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.

jMy anger is hot against the shepherds,

and kI will punish the leaders;4

for lthe Lord of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah,

and will make them like his majestic steed in battle.

From him shall come mthe cornerstone,

from him nthe tent peg,

from him the battle bow,

from him every ruleroall of them together.

They shall be like mighty men in battle,

ptrampling the foe in the mud of the streets;

they shall fight because the Lord is with them,

and they shall put to shame qthe riders on horses.

rI will strengthen the house of Judah,

and sI will save the house of Joseph.

tI will bring them back ubecause I have compassion on them,

and they shall be as though I had not rejected them,

for vI am the Lord their God and I will answer them.

Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior,

and wtheir hearts shall be glad as with wine.

Their children shall see it and be glad;

their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord.

xI will whistle for them and ygather them in,

for I have redeemed them,

and zthey shall be as many as they were before.

aThough I scattered them among the nations,

yet in far countries bthey shall remember me,

and with their children they shall live and return.

10  cI will bring them home from the land of Egypt,

and gather them from Assyria,

and dI will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon,

etill there is no room for them.

11  fHe shall pass through the sea of troubles

and strike down the waves of the sea,

gand all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up.

The pride of Assyria shall be laid low,

and hthe scepter of Egypt shall depart.

12  iI will make them strong in the Lord,

and jthey shall walk in his name,

declares the Lord.

The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

Open your doors, kO Lebanon,

that the fire may devour your cedars!

Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,

for the glorious trees are ruined!

Wail, koaks of Bashan,

for the thick forest has been felled!

The sound of lthe wail of lthe shepherds,

for their glory is ruined!

The sound of the roar of mthe lions,

nfor the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

Thus said the Lord my God: oBecome shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. pThose who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, Blessed be the Lord, qI have become rich, and their own shepherds have no pity on them. For rI will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.

sSo I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named uFavor, the other I named vUnion. sAnd I tended the sheep. In one month wI destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. So I said, I will not be your shepherd. xWhat is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another. 10 And I took ymy staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them. And they weighed out as my wages zthirty pieces of silver. 13 Then the Lord said to me, Throw it to the potterathe lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the zthirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. 14 Then I broke bmy second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me, Take once more the equipment of ca foolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd dwho does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but edevours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

17  fWoe to my worthless shepherd,

gwho deserts the flock!

May the sword strike his arm

and hhis right eye!

Let his arm be wholly withered,

his right eye utterly blinded!

The Lord Will Give Salvation

iThe oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, jwho stretched out the heavens and kfounded the earth and jformed the spirit of man within him: Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem la cup of staggering to mall the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem nwill also be against Judah. oOn that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. pAll who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And mall the nations of the earth will gather against it. oOn that day, declares the Lord, qI will strike every horse rwith panic, and its rider rwith madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples rwith blindness. Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.

oOn that day I will make the clans of Judah slike a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And tthey shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while uJerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.

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. oOn that day vthe Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that wthe feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, xlike the angel of the Lord, going before them. oAnd on that day yI will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Him Whom They Have Pierced

10 And zI will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and zpleas for mercy, so that, awhen they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, bthey shall mourn for him, cas one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 oOn that day dthe mourning in Jerusalem will be as great eas the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, feach family5 by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of gNathan 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 hthe Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

iOn that day there shall be ja fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.

Idolatry Cut Off

And ion that day, declares the Lord of hosts, kI will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that lthey shall be remembered no more. And also mI will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, nYou 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.

On that day oevery prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, but he will say, pI am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.6 And if one asks him, What are these wounds on your back?7 he will say, The wounds I received in the house of my friends.

The Shepherd Struck

Awake, O sword, against qmy shepherd,

against the man who stands next to me,

declares the Lord of hosts.

rStrike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;

I will turn my hand against the little ones.

In the whole land, declares the Lord,

two thirds shall be cut off and perish,

sand one third shall be left alive.

And tI will put this third into the fire,

and refine them as one refines silver,

and test them as gold is tested.

uThey will call upon my name,

and vI will answer them.

wI will say, They are my people;

and they will say, The Lord is my God.

The Coming Day of the Lord

Behold, xa day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. For yI will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and zthe city shall be taken aand the houses plundered band the women raped. cHalf of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. dThen the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. eOn that day his feet shall stand fon gthe Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and gthe Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by ha very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 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 ithe earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.8

eOn that day jthere shall be jno light, cold, or frost.9 kAnd there shall be a unique10 day, lwhich is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but mat evening time there shall be light.

eOn that day nliving waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to othe eastern sea11 and half of them to othe western sea.12 pIt shall continue in summer as in winter.

And qthe Lord will be king over all the earth. rOn that day the Lord will be sone and this name one.

10 uThe whole land shall be turned into a plain from vGeba to wRimmon south of Jerusalem. But xJerusalem shall remain aloft yon its site from zthe Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to athe Corner Gate, and from bthe Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 And it shall be inhabited, for cthere shall never again be a decree of utter destruction.13 dJerusalem shall dwell in security.

12 And this shall be ethe 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 fon that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that geach will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. 14 Even hJudah will fight at Jerusalem.14 And ithe wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 15 And ja 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 kshall go up year after year to worship lthe King, the Lord of hosts, and mto keep nthe Feast of Booths. 17 And if oany of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship lthe King, the Lord of hosts, pthere 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;15 there shall be jthe plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up mto 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 mto keep the Feast of Booths.

20 And qon that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, rHoly to the Lord. And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. 21 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be rholy 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 sthere shall no longer be ta trader16 in the house of the Lord of hosts qon that day.