Zechariah 11-14
New Living Translation
11 Open your doors, Lebanon,
so that fire may devour your cedar forests.
2 Weep, you cypress trees, for all the ruined cedars;
the most majestic ones have fallen.
Weep, you oaks of Bashan,
for the thick forests have been cut down.
3 Listen to the wailing of the shepherds,
for their rich pastures are destroyed.
Hear the young lions roaring,
for their thickets in the Jordan Valley are ruined.
The Good and Evil Shepherds
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Go and care for the flock that is intended for slaughter. 5 The buyers slaughter their sheep without remorse. The sellers say, ‘Praise the Lord! Now I’m rich!’ Even the shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 Likewise, I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” says the Lord. “I will let them fall into each other’s hands and into the hands of their king. They will turn the land into a wilderness, and I will not rescue them.”
7 So I cared for the flock intended for slaughter—the flock that was oppressed. Then I took two shepherd’s staffs and named one Favor and the other Union. 8 I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month.
But I became impatient with these sheep, and they hated me, too. 9 So I told them, “I won’t be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die. If you are killed, you are killed. And let those who remain devour each other!”
10 Then I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, showing that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 That was the end of my covenant with them. The suffering flock was watching me, and they knew that the Lord was speaking through my actions.
12 And I said to them, “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.” So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter[a]”—this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.
14 Then I took my other staff, Union, and cut it in two, showing that the bond of unity between Judah and Israel was broken.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again and play the part of a worthless shepherd. 16 This illustrates how I will give this nation a shepherd who will not care for those who are dying, nor look after the young, nor heal the injured, nor feed the healthy. Instead, this shepherd will eat the meat of the fattest sheep and tear off their hooves.
17 “What sorrow awaits this worthless shepherd
who abandons the flock!
The sword will cut his arm
and pierce his right eye.
His arm will become useless,
and his right eye completely blind.”
Future Deliverance for Jerusalem
12 This[b] message concerning the fate of Israel came from the Lord: “This message is from the Lord, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit. 2 I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves.
4 “On that day,” says the Lord, “I will cause every horse to panic and every rider to lose his nerve. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of their enemies. 5 And the clans of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem have found strength in the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure.
7 “The Lord will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the Lord who goes before them! 9 For on that day I will begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 “Then I will pour out a spirit[c] of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died. 11 The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the great mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
12 “All Israel will mourn, each clan by itself, and with the husbands separate from their wives. The clan of David will mourn alone, as will the clan of Nathan, 13 the clan of Levi, and the clan of Shimei. 14 Each of the surviving clans from Judah will mourn separately, and with the husbands separate from their wives.
A Fountain of Cleansing
13 “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.
2 “And on that day,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will erase idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. I will remove from the land both the false prophets and the spirit of impurity that came with them. 3 If anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother will tell him, ‘You must die, for you have prophesied lies in the name of the Lord.’ And as he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him.
4 “On that day people will be ashamed to claim the prophetic gift. No one will pretend to be a prophet by wearing prophet’s clothes. 5 He will say, ‘I’m no prophet; I’m a farmer. I began working for a farmer as a boy.’ 6 And if someone asks, ‘Then what about those wounds on your chest?[d]’ he will say, ‘I was wounded at my friends’ house!’
The Scattering of the Sheep
7 “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
the man who is my partner,”
says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
“Strike down the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn against the lambs.
8 Two-thirds of the people in the land
will be cut off and die,” says the Lord.
“But one-third will be left in the land.
9 I will bring that group through the fire
and make them pure.
I will refine them like silver
and purify them like gold.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘These are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
The Lord Will Rule the Earth
14 Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming when your possessions will be plundered right in front of you! 2 I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.
3 Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past. 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. And the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a wide valley running from east to west. Half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south. 5 You will flee through this valley, for it will reach across to Azal.[e] Yes, you will flee as you did from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him.[f]
6 On that day the sources of light will no longer shine,[g] 7 yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how this could happen. There will be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be light.
8 On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean,[h] flowing continuously in both summer and winter.
9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped.
10 All the land from Geba, north of Judah, to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become one vast plain. But Jerusalem will be raised up in its original place and will be inhabited all the way from the Benjamin Gate over to the site of the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 And Jerusalem will be filled, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed.
12 And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 On that day they will be terrified, stricken by the Lord with great panic. They will fight their neighbors hand to hand. 14 Judah, too, will be fighting at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be captured—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing. 15 This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camps.
16 In the end, the enemies of Jerusalem who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 17 Any nation in the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, will have no rain. 18 If the people of Egypt refuse to attend the festival, the Lord will punish[i] them with the same plague that he sends on the other nations who refuse to go. 19 Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they don’t go to celebrate the Festival of Shelters.
20 On that day even the harness bells of the horses will be inscribed with these words: Holy to the lord. And the cooking pots in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the basins used beside the altar. 21 In fact, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All who come to worship will be free to use any of these pots to boil their sacrifices. And on that day there will no longer be traders[j] in the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Footnotes
- 11:13 Syriac version reads into the treasury; also in 11:13b. Compare Matt 27:6-10.
- 12:1 Hebrew An Oracle: This.
- 12:10 Or the Spirit.
- 13:6 Hebrew wounds between your hands?
- 14:5a The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
- 14:5b As in Greek version; Hebrew reads with you.
- 14:6 Hebrew the precious ones shall diminish; or the precious ones and frost. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
- 14:8 Hebrew half toward the eastern sea and half toward the western sea.
- 14:18 As in some Hebrew manuscripts and Greek and Syriac versions; Masoretic Text reads will not punish.
- 14:21 Hebrew Canaanites.
Zechariah 11-14
English Standard Version
The Flock Doomed to Slaughter
11 Open your doors, (A)O Lebanon,
that the fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, (B)oaks of Bashan,
for the thick forest has been felled!
3 The sound of (C)the wail of (D)the shepherds,
for their glory is ruined!
The sound of the roar of (E)the lions,
(F)for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
4 Thus said the Lord my God: (G)“Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 (H)Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, (I)I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For (J)I 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.”
7 (K)So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named (L)Favor, the other I named (M)Union. (N)And I tended the sheep. 8 In one month (O)I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. (P)What 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 (Q)my 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 (R)thirty pieces of silver. 13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—(S)the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the (T)thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. 14 Then I broke (U)my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of (V)a foolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd (W)who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but (X)devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
17 (Y)“Woe to my worthless shepherd,
(Z)who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm
and (AA)his right eye!
Let his arm be wholly withered,
his right eye utterly blinded!”
The Lord Will Give Salvation
12 (AB)The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, (AC)who stretched out the heavens and (AD)founded the earth and (AE)formed the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem (AF)a cup of staggering to (AG)all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem (AH)will also be against Judah. 3 (AI)On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. (AJ)All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And (AK)all the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 (AL)On that day, declares the Lord, (AM)I will strike every horse (AN)with panic, and its rider (AO)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 (AP)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 (AQ)“On that day I will make the clans of Judah (AR)like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And (AS)they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while (AT)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 (AU)On that day (AV)the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that (AW)the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, (AX)like the angel of the Lord, going before them. 9 (AY)And on that day (AZ)I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Him Whom They Have Pierced
10 “And (BA)I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and (BB)pleas for mercy, so that, (BC)when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, (BD)they shall mourn for him, (BE)as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 (BF)On that day (BG)the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great (BH)as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, (BI)each family[a] by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of (BJ)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 (BK)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.
13 (BL)“On that day there shall be (BM)a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
Idolatry Cut Off
2 “And (BN)on that day, declares the Lord of hosts, (BO)I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that (BP)they shall be remembered no more. And also (BQ)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, (BR)‘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 (BS)every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, 5 but he will say, (BT)‘I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.’[b] 6 And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’[c] he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Struck
7 “Awake, O sword, against (BU)my shepherd,
against the man who stands next to me,”
declares the Lord of hosts.
(BV)“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,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
(BW)and one third shall be left alive.
9 And (BX)I will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
(BY)They will call upon my name,
and (BZ)I will answer them.
(CA)I will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
The Coming Day of the Lord
14 Behold, (CB)a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For (CC)I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and (CD)the city shall be taken (CE)and the houses plundered (CF)and the women raped. (CG)Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 (CH)Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 (CI)On that day his feet shall stand (CJ)on (CK)the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and (CL)the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by (CM)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 (CN)the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.[d]
6 (CO)On that day (CP)there shall be (CQ)no light, cold, or frost.[e] 7 (CR)And there shall be a unique[f] day, (CS)which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but (CT)at evening time there shall be light.
8 (CU)On that day (CV)living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to (CW)the eastern sea[g] and half of them to (CX)the western sea.[h] (CY)It shall continue in summer as in winter.
9 And (CZ)the Lord will be king over all the earth. (DA)On that day the Lord will be (DB)one and (DC)his name one.
10 (DD)The whole land shall be turned into a plain from (DE)Geba to (DF)Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But (DG)Jerusalem shall remain aloft (DH)on its site from (DI)the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to (DJ)the Corner Gate, and from (DK)the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses. 11 And it shall be inhabited, for (DL)there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction.[i] (DM)Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
12 And this shall be (DN)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 (DO)on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that (DP)each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. 14 Even (DQ)Judah will fight at Jerusalem.[j] And (DR)the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 15 And (DS)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 (DT)shall go up year after year to worship (DU)the King, the Lord of hosts, and (DV)to keep (DW)the Feast of Booths. 17 And if (DX)any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship (DY)the King, the Lord of hosts, (DZ)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;[k] there shall be (EA)the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up (EB)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 (EC)to keep the Feast of Booths.
20 And (ED)on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, (EE)“Holy 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 (EF)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 (EG)there shall no longer be (EH)a trader[l] in the house of the Lord of hosts (EI)on that day.
Footnotes
- Zechariah 12:12 Or clan; throughout verses 12–14
- Zechariah 13:5 Or for the land has been my possession since my youth
- Zechariah 13:6 Or on your chest; Hebrew wounds between your hands
- Zechariah 14:5 Other Hebrew manuscripts you
- Zechariah 14:6 Compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
- Zechariah 14:7 Hebrew one
- Zechariah 14:8 That is, the Dead Sea
- Zechariah 14:8 That is, the Mediterranean Sea
- Zechariah 14:11 The Hebrew term rendered decree of utter destruction refers to things devoted (or set apart) to the Lord (or by the Lord) for destruction
- Zechariah 14:14 Or against Jerusalem
- Zechariah 14:18 Hebrew lacks rain
- Zechariah 14:21 Or Canaanite
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
