Zechariah 10-12
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Lord Restores His People
10 Ask the Lord for rain
in the season of spring rain.
The Lord makes the rain clouds,
and He will give them showers of rain
and crops in the field for everyone.(A)
2 For the idols speak falsehood,
and the diviners(B) see illusions;
they relate empty dreams
and offer empty comfort.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
they suffer affliction because there is no shepherd.
3 My anger burns against the shepherds,
so I will punish the leaders.[a]
For the Lord of Hosts has tended His flock,
the house of Judah;
He will make them like His majestic steed in battle.
4 The cornerstone(C) will come from Judah.[b]
The tent peg(D) will come from them
and also the battle bow(E) and every[c] ruler.
Together 5 they will be like warriors in battle
trampling down the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put horsemen to shame.
6 I will strengthen the house of Judah
and deliver the house of Joseph.[d]
I will restore[e] them
because I have compassion on them,
and they will be
as though I had never rejected them.(F)
For I am Yahweh their God,
and I will answer them.
7 Ephraim(G) will be like a warrior,
and their hearts will be glad as if with wine.
Their children will see it and be glad;(H)
their hearts will rejoice in Yahweh.
8 I will whistle(I) and gather them
because I have redeemed(J) them;
they will be as numerous as they once were.
9 Though I sow(K) them among the nations,
they will remember(L) Me in the distant lands;
they and their children will live and return.
10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them to the land of Gilead(M)
and to Lebanon,
but it will not be enough for them.
11 Yahweh[f] will pass through the sea of distress
and strike the waves of the sea;
all the depths of the Nile will dry up.(N)
The pride of Assyria will be brought down,
and the scepter of Egypt will come to an end.
12 I will strengthen(O) them in Yahweh,
and they will march(P) in His name—
this is Yahweh’s declaration.
Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad
11 Open your gates, Lebanon,
and fire will consume your cedars.(Q)
2 Wail, cypress,(R) for the cedar has fallen;
the glorious trees are destroyed!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,(S)
for the stately forest has fallen!
3 Listen to the wail(T) of the shepherds,
for their glory is destroyed.
Listen to the roar of young lions,(U)
for the thickets of the Jordan(V) are[g] destroyed.
4 Yahweh my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.(W) Those who sell them say: Praise the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.”(X)
7 So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the afflicted of the flock.[h] I took two staffs, calling one Favor(Y) and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is going astray go astray; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” 10 Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11 It was annulled on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock[i] who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, 30 pieces of silver.(Z)
13 “Throw it to the potter,”[j] the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.[k](AA) 14 Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord also said to me: “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are going astray, and he will not seek the lost[l] or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy,[m] but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep(AB) and tear off their hooves.
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who deserts the flock!(AC)
May a sword strike[n] his arm
and his right eye!
May his arm wither away
and his right eye go completely blind!”
Judah’s Security
12 An Oracle
The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
A declaration of the Lord,
who stretched out the heavens,(AD)
laid the foundation of the earth,(AE)
and formed the spirit of man within him.
2 “Look, I will make Jerusalem a cup that causes staggering(AF) for the peoples who surround the city. The siege against Jerusalem will also involve Judah. 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who try to lift it will injure themselves severely when all the nations of the earth gather against her.(AG) 4 On that day”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness.(AH) I will keep a watchful eye on(AI) the house of Judah but strike all the horses of the nations with blindness. 5 Then each of the leaders of Judah will think to himself: The residents of Jerusalem are my strength through the Lord of Hosts, their God. 6 On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and the left, while Jerusalem continues to be inhabited on its site, in Jerusalem. 7 The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of David’s house and the glory of Jerusalem’s residents may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that on that day the one who is weakest among them will be like David on that day, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the Lord, before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Mourning for the Pierced One
10 “Then I will pour out a spirit[o](AJ) of grace and prayer on the house of David and the residents of Jerusalem, and they will look at[p] Me whom they pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly for Him as one weeps for a firstborn.(AK) 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, every family by itself: the family of David’s house by itself and their women by themselves; the family of Nathan’s[q](AL) house by itself and their women by themselves; 13 the family of Levi’s house by itself and their women by themselves; the family of Shimei[r](AM) by itself and their women by themselves; 14 all the remaining families, every family by itself, and their women by themselves.
Footnotes
- Zechariah 10:3 Lit male goats
- Zechariah 10:4 Lit them
- Zechariah 10:4 Lit also from them the . . . , from them every
- Zechariah 10:6 = the northern kingdom
- Zechariah 10:6 Other Hb mss, LXX read settle
- Zechariah 10:11 Lit He
- Zechariah 11:3 Lit for the majesty of the Jordan is
- Zechariah 11:7 LXX reads slaughter that belonged to the sheep merchants
- Zechariah 11:11 LXX reads and the sheep merchants
- Zechariah 11:13 Syr reads treasury
- Zechariah 11:13 One Hb ms, Syr read treasury
- Zechariah 11:16 Lit young
- Zechariah 11:16 Or exhausted
- Zechariah 11:17 Lit be against
- Zechariah 12:10 Or out the Spirit
- Zechariah 12:10 Or to
- Zechariah 12:12 = a son of David
- Zechariah 12:13 = a descendant of Levi
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