Zechariah 10-12

New American Standard Bible

God Will Bless Judah and Ephraim

10 Ask for ^(A)rain from the Lord at the time of the spring rain—

The Lord who ^(B)makes the ^[a]storm winds;
And He will give them ^(C)showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each person.
²For the ^[b]^(D)household idols speak deception,
And the ^(E)diviners see ^[c]an illusion
And tell ^(F)deceitful dreams;
They comfort in vain.
Therefore the people ^[d]wander like ^(G)sheep,
They are wretched because there is no shepherd.
³“My ^(H)anger is kindled against the shepherds,
And I will punish the ^[e]male goats;
For the Lord of armies has ^(I)visited His flock, the house of Judah,
And will make them like His majestic horse in battle.
⁴From ^[f]them will come the ^(J)cornerstone,
From ^[g]them the tent peg,
From ^[h]them the bow of ^(K)battle,
From ^[i]them every tyrant, all of them together.
⁵And they will be like warriors,
^(L)Trampling down the enemy in the mud of the streets in battle;
And they will fight, because the Lord will be with them;
And the ^(M)riders on horses will be put to shame.
⁶And I will ^(N)strengthen the house of Judah,
And I will ^(O)save the house of Joseph,
And I will ^[j]^(P)bring them back,
Because I have had ^(Q)compassion on them;
And they will be as though I had ^(R)not rejected them,
For I am the Lord their God and I will ^(S)answer them.
⁷Ephraim will be like a warrior,
And their heart will be joyful as if from wine;
Indeed, their ^(T)children will see it and be joyful,
^[k]Their heart will rejoice in the Lord.
⁸I will ^(U)whistle for them and gather them together,
For I have redeemed them;
And they will be as ^(V)numerous as they ^[l]^(W)were before.
⁹When I ^[m]scatter them among the peoples,
They will ^(X)remember Me in distant countries,
And they with their children will live and come back.
¹⁰I will ^(Y)bring them back from the land of Egypt
And gather them from Assyria;
And I will bring them into the land of ^(Z)Gilead and Lebanon
^[n]Until ^(AA)no room can be found for them.
¹¹And they will pass through the ^(AB)sea of distress
And He will strike the waves in the sea,
So that all the depths of the ^(AC)Nile will dry up;
And the pride of ^(AD)Assyria will be brought down,
And the scepter of ^(AE)Egypt will depart.
¹²And I will ^(AF)strengthen them in the Lord,
And in His name ^(AG)they will walk,” declares the Lord.

The Doomed Flock

11 Open your doors, Lebanon,

So that a ^(AH)fire may feed on your ^(AI)cedars.
²Wail, juniper, because the cedar has fallen,
For the magnificent trees have been destroyed;
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
Because the ^[o]impenetrable forest has come down.
³There is a sound of the shepherds’ ^(AJ)wail,
For their splendor is ruined;
There is a ^(AK)sound of the young lions’ roar,
For the ^[p]pride of the Jordan is ruined.

⁴This is what the Lord my God says: “Pasture the flock doomed to ^(AL)slaughter. ⁵Those who buy them slaughter them and ^[q]go ^(AM)unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for ^(AN)I have become rich!’ And their ^(AO)own shepherds have no compassion for them. ⁶For I will ^(AP)no longer have compassion for the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will ^(AQ)let the people fall, each into another’s ^[r]power and into the ^[s]power of his king; and they will crush the land, and I will ^(AR)not rescue them from their ^[t]power.”

⁷So I ^(AS)pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ^[u]therefore also the ^(AT)afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^(AU)staffs: the one I called ^[v]^(AV)Favor, and the other I called ^(AW)Union; so I pastured the flock. ⁸Then I did away with the three shepherds in ^(AX)one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ^[w]was tired of me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to ^(AY)die, ^[x]let it die, and what is to perish, ^[y]let it perish; and ^[z]let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” ¹⁰And I took my staff ^[aa]^(AZ)Favor and cut it in pieces, to ^[ab]^(BA)break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was ^[ac]broken on that day, and ^[ad]so the ^(BB)afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²And I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my ^(BC)wages; but if not, ^[ae]never mind!” So they weighed out ^(BD)thirty shekels of silver as my wages. ¹³Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(BE)potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.” So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^(BF)Union, to ^(BG)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^(BH)foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^(BI)not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or provide for the one who is exhausted, but will ^(BJ)devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

¹⁷^(BK)Woe to the worthless shepherd
Who abandons the flock!
A ^(BL)sword will be on his arm
And on his right eye!
His ^(BM)arm will be totally withered,
And his right eye will be ^[af]blind.”

Jerusalem to Be Attacked

12 The pronouncement of the word of the Lord concerning Israel:

The Lord who ^(BN)stretches out the heavens, ^(BO)lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(BP)forms the spirit of a person within him, declares: ²“Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^(BQ)cup ^[ag]that causes staggering to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^(BR)Judah. ³It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^(BS)stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will ^(BT)injure themselves severely. And all the ^(BU)nations of the earth will be gathered against it. ⁴On that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with insanity. But I will ^[ah]watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵Then the ^[ai]clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a ^[aj]strong support for us through the Lord of armies, their God.’

⁶“On that day I will make the ^[ak]clans of Judah like a ^(BV)firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while ^[al]the ^(BW)inhabitants of Jerusalem again live on their own sites in Jerusalem. ⁷The Lord also will ^(BX)save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of ^(BY)David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be greater than Judah. ⁸On that day the Lord will ^(BZ)protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^[am]^(CA)is feeble among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^(CB)God, like the ^(CC)angel of the Lord before them. ⁹And on that day I will ^(CD)seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰“And I will ^(CE)pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^[an]the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they ^(CF)pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one ^(CG)mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. ¹¹On that day the ^(CH)mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ^[ao]plain of ^[ap]Megiddo. ¹²The land will 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 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 the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴all the families that are left, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.