Zechariah 10-12

New King James Version

Restoration of Judah and Israel

10 Ask ^(A)the Lord for ^(B)rain
In ^(C)the time of the ^[a]latter rain.
The Lord will make ^[b]flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.

²For the ^(D)idols^[c] speak delusion;
The diviners envision ^(E)lies,
And tell false dreams;
They ^(F)comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wend their way like ^(G)sheep;
They are ^[d]in trouble ^(H)because there is no shepherd.

³“My anger is kindled against the ^(I)shepherds,
^(J)And I will punish the ^[e]goatherds.
For the Lord of hosts ^(K)will visit His flock,
The house of Judah,
And ^(L)will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
⁴From him comes ^(M)the cornerstone,
From him ^(N)the tent peg,
From him the battle bow,
From him every ^[f]ruler together.
⁵They shall be like mighty men,
Who ^(O)tread 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.
^(P)I will bring them back,
Because I ^(Q)have mercy on them.
They shall be as though I had not cast them aside;
For I am the Lord their God,
And I ^(R)will hear them.
⁷Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man,
And their ^(S)heart shall rejoice as if with wine.
Yes, their children shall see it and be glad;
Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.
⁸I will ^(T)whistle for them and gather them,
For I will redeem them;
^(U)And they shall increase as they once increased.

⁹“I^(V) will ^[g]sow them among the peoples,
And they shall ^(W)remember Me in far countries;
They shall live, together with their children,
And they shall return.
¹⁰^(X)I 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,
^(Y)Until no more room is found for them.
¹¹^(Z)He shall pass through the sea with affliction,
And strike the waves of the sea:
All the depths of ^[h]the River shall dry up.
Then ^(AA)the pride of Assyria shall be brought down,
And ^(AB)the scepter of Egypt shall depart.

¹²“So I will strengthen them in the Lord,
And ^(AC)they shall walk up and down in His name,”
Says the Lord.

Desolation of Israel

11 Open ^(AD)your doors, O Lebanon,
That fire may devour your cedars.
²Wail, O cypress, for the ^(AE)cedar has fallen,
Because the mighty trees are ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
^(AF)For the thick forest has come down.
³There is the sound of wailing ^(AG)shepherds!
For their glory is in ruins.
There is the sound of roaring lions!
For the ^[i]pride 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 ^(AH)feel no guilt; those who sell them ^(AI)say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do ^(AJ)not 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 ^[j]attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

⁷So I fed the flock for slaughter, ^[k]in particular ^(AK)the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called ^[l]Beauty, and the other I called ^[m]Bonds; and I fed the flock. ⁸I ^[n]dismissed the three shepherds ^(AL)in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not feed you. ^(AM)Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰And I took my staff, ^[o]Beauty, 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 ^(AN)the^[p] poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²Then I said to them, “If it is ^[q]agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they ^(AO)weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(AP)potter”—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, ^[r]Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the Lord said to me, ^(AQ)“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 ^(AR)pieces.

¹⁷“Woe^(AS) to 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

12 The ^[s]burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, ^(AT)who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(AU)forms the spirit of man within him: ²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem ^(AV)a cup of ^[t]drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. ³^(AW)And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem ^(AX)a 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, ^(AY)“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 ^(AZ)like 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 ^(BA)destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning for the Pierced One

¹⁰^(BB)“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will ^(BC)look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him ^(BD)as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. ¹¹In that day there shall be a great ^(BE)mourning in Jerusalem, ^(BF)like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of ^[u]Megiddo. ¹²^(BG)And 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 ^(BH)Nathan 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.