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Zechariah 9-14
EasyEnglish Bible
Zechariah 9-14
EasyEnglish Bible
God speaks against Israel's enemies
9 The Lord speaks against the land of Hadrach, and against the city of Damascus.
The Lord watches all men and all the groups of people in Israel.
2 The Lord speaks against the country called Hamath. (It is next to the country called Hadrach.) The people in Tyre and Sidon cities are very wise. But the Lord also speaks against them.
3 Tyre's people have built strong walls to keep enemies out.
They have swept up rich metals like dirt.
They have swept up gold like dirt in the streets.
4 The Lord will take away all the things that Tyre's people have.
And he will remove their ships from the sea.
Fire will burn every part of the city.
5 The people in Ashkelon city will see it and they will be afraid.
The people in Gaza city will see it and they will be afraid.
The things that the people in Ekron city hope for will not happen.
The king of Gaza will die
and there will be no people in Ashkelon any longer.
6 Foreign people will live in Ashdod city.
I will show the Philistines that they are not clever. They are not as clever as they believe.
7 I will take the blood from their mouths.
I will take the food from their teeth, because it is bad food.
Those that remain will still be my people.
They will become leaders in Judah.
Ekron will be like a part of Judah, as the Jebusites were.
8 Then I will keep my house safe against my enemies.
No army will ever again beat my people,
because I am watching them.
The king of Zion comes
9 Sing loudly, people in Zion.
Shout, people in Jerusalem.
Look! Your king comes to you.
He will save you because he does everything well.
But he is quiet and he is riding on a donkey.
He will ride on a young animal. Its mother is a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim,[a]
and the horses of war from Jerusalem.
The bows of war will be broken.
He will speak to all the countries and wars will finish.
He will rule from sea to sea. He will rule from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
11 But I made a promise to you. I made that promise true with blood. I will free your people that are in a prison, in deep dark holes without water.
12 All you people who hoped to see your own country again, return to Jerusalem.
I tell you this now: I will give back to you twice as much as you have lost.
13 I will use Judah and Israel to attack my enemies.
I will use you, men from Zion, to attack the men from Greece.
I will make you like the long metal knife of a soldier.
The Lord will appear
14 Then the Lord will appear above his people.
His arrows will be as fast as lightning in the sky.
The Lord God will make a loud sound with a trumpet.
He will march in a storm from the south to attack.
15 And the Lord Almighty will help his people.
They will throw great stones at their enemies.
When they go to war, they will shout loudly,
like men who have drunk too much wine.
They will be as full of joy as the priest's bowl is full of blood,
when he pours it on the altar.
16 On that day, the Lord will save them.
They are his people.
They will shine in his country
like beautiful stones that shine in a crown.
17 The people will be beautiful and good.
The young people will become strong
when they eat good bread.
The young women will become strong
when they drink new wine.
The Lord will watch over Judah
10 Ask the Lord for rain in spring.
It is the Lord who makes the clouds and the storms.
He gives the rain to men.
He gives the plants of the field to everyone.
2 People ask idols for help,
but the idols do not speak true words.
Some people explain what a dream means.
But they do not speak true words.
The help that they give is not good.
So the people move from place to place like sheep.
They are not safe. They have no leaders.
3 ‘I am angry with the leaders.
I will cause them to be sorry.
Judah's people are mine,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘I will watch over them.
I will make them as strong as horses that are ready for war.
4 From Judah's descendants will come a strong leader.
He is like a strong stone at the corner of a building.
He is like a strong peg in a wall.
He is like a bow that is ready to shoot arrows.
Every strong ruler will come from Judah's descendants.
5 Together they will be like brave soldiers
who march through the mud in the streets of their enemies.
The Lord is with them and they will fight their enemies.
They will pull down the soldiers from their horses.
6 I will make Judah's people strong,
and I will make Israel's people become free.
I will bring them back to me,
because I am sorry for them.
I am their God,
and I will answer them.
It will be as if I had never turned away from them.
7 Israel's people will become like strong men.
They will be as happy as men that drink wine.
Their children will see their happy fathers
and so the children will be happy.
They will sing to the Lord.
8 I will cause my people to come to me and I will bring them all together.
I will buy them and I will make them free people.
And there will be as many people as there were before.
9 I will send them to foreign countries among foreign people.
But, in these far countries, they will remember me.
They and their children will not die.
They will return to Jerusalem.
10 I will bring my people back from Egypt,
and I will bring them here together from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and to Lebanon.
There will not be enough room for them all.
11 And he will come to the difficult sea.
But it will be no trouble to him.
He will stop the waves in the sea.
He will make the river Nile dry.[b]
Proud Assyria will have nothing to be proud about and
the power of Egypt's people will finish.’
12 ‘I will make my people strong.
They will obey me because they love my name.’
The sheep and the shepherd
11 Open your gates, Lebanon,
so that the fires can burn down your cedar trees.
2 Cry aloud, cypress tree, because the cedar tree has fallen.
Enemies have cut down the tall and beautiful trees.
Cry aloud, oak trees in Bashan,
because they have cut down the thick forest.
3 Listen to the shepherds!
They are crying because enemies have destroyed their fields.
Listen to the noise of the lions!
They are roaring because the trees beside the Jordan River
are no longer there.
The two shepherds[c]
4 This is what the Lord said to me, Zechariah. ‘My people are like sheep. There will be a time when men will buy them. And then they will kill them. But feed them until that time.
5 Those men who buy the sheep will kill them. Nobody will punish them. They will sell them. And they will say, “Thank you Lord, because I am a rich man.” Their own shepherds do not give the sheep any help.’
6 The Lord says, ‘The people in this country were my people, but they are not my people now. I will not go on being kind to them. I myself will give them to their enemies and to foreign kings. The foreign kings will do very bad things to the country, but I will not come to help.’
7 So I was a good shepherd to the sheep that men would soon kill. I took special care of the weakest sheep. Then I took two sticks. And I called one stick ‘Grace’ and I called the other stick ‘Together’. I fed the sheep.
8 In one month, I sent away three shepherds. They did not like me and I was not patient with them.
9 I said to the sheep, ‘I will not be your shepherd and you will die. The sheep that do not die will eat each other.’
10 I took ‘Grace’ which was my first stick. I broke it into two pieces. The Lord's promise to his people finished.
11 On the day that the Lord's promise finished, the weak sheep watched me. They knew that it was the Lord's message.
12 I said to them, ‘You may think that I should have some money for my work. If you do think that, pay me my money. If you do not want to pay me, keep it.’ So they paid me 30 silver coins.
13 The Lord said to me, ‘Throw the 30 silver coins to the man who makes pots in the house of the Lord.’ They thought that I was not worth very much! I took the 30 coins. And I threw them to the man who makes pots. He makes them for the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke the second stick called ‘Together’. I made the kingdom of Judah separate from the kingdom of Israel. 15 Then the Lord said to me, Zechariah, ‘Take again the tools of a useless shepherd. 16 I have chosen a man to watch the sheep. He will not help the sheep that are dying. He will not look for the sheep that have gone away. He will not help the sick sheep or feed the strong sheep. He will eat the meat of the fat sheep. He will tear off their feet to get all the meat.
17 Bad things will happen to the bad shepherd who leaves his sheep.
His enemy's knife will cut his arm and his right eye.
His arm will become like a dry stick. And his right eye will no longer be able to see anything.’
The Lord will beat the enemies of Jerusalem
12 This is the Lord's message about Israel. The Lord made the skies and the whole wide earth. He makes men and women.
2 ‘I will frighten the enemies that live round Jerusalem. I will frighten them so much that they will run. They will run as fast as they can from Jerusalem and from Judah.
3 There will be a time when all the countries of the earth will be ready to attack Jerusalem. Then I will make Jerusalem like a heavy rock that nobody can move. All those who try to lift it will hurt themselves very badly.
4 On that day,’ says the Lord, ‘I will make every horse very afraid. I will make all the men that ride them crazy. I want to help Judah's people. And so, I will not let the horses of the enemy see any longer.
5 Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, “The Lord Almighty, their God, makes the people in Jerusalem strong. And they will help us.”
6 On that day, I will make the leaders of Judah like fire in a forest. I will make them like fire among wheat that the farmer has cut. They will kill all the people from round Jerusalem, but the people in Jerusalem will be safe.
7 The Lord will save the homes of the people from Judah first. So David's family and the people who live in Jerusalem will not be greater than the people from Judah.[d]
8 On that day, the Lord will save the people who live in Jerusalem. Even sick people will be as strong as King David was. The family of David will lead the people from Jerusalem like the angel of the Lord. God himself will go before them.
9 On that day, I will destroy all the countries that fight against Israel.
They will weep for the man that they killed
10 I will cause the family of David and the people in Jerusalem to think seriously about me. Then they will know that I am kind to them. And they will want to pray to me. They will look at me whom they pierced (made holes in). They will weep about him as those that weep after the death of their only son. They will cry aloud as if their only son was dead.
11 On that day, people will weep loudly in Jerusalem. It will be like when they were weeping about Hadad-Rimmon in the fields of Megiddo.[e]
12 All the people will weep. Each family will weep by itself. The family of King David will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves. The family of Nathan will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves.
13 The family of Levi will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves. The family of Shimei will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves.
14 And all the families that have not died will weep by themselves. And their wives will weep by themselves.’
The Lord takes away the sin of the people
13 ‘On that day, water will start to pour from a fountain for King David's descendants and Jerusalem's people. It will make them clean from their sins and the dirty things that they have done.’
2 The Lord Almighty says, ‘On that day, I will remove the names of false gods from the country. Everyone will forget them. I will remove all the false prophets. And I will remove the bad spirit that is not holy.
3 And if anyone appears as a prophet again, his father and his mother will say to him, “You must die. You do not speak true words. The Lord has not spoken to you.” Then they will kill him.
4 On that day, every prophet will be ashamed that he was ever a prophet. He will not put on the clothes of a prophet that they make from hair. Then people will not know that he is a prophet.
5 He will say, “I am not a prophet. I am a farmer. From the time that I was a boy, I have worked on the land.”
6 If someone asks him, “Who cut your body?” he will answer, “My friends cut me when I was at their house.” ’
Kill the shepherd and the sheep will run away
7 ‘Attack my shepherd with a sharp knife.
Attack the man that is next to me,’
says the Lord Almighty.
‘Kill the shepherd and then the sheep will run away.
Then I will attack the young sheep.
8 In the whole country,’ says the Lord,
‘two thirds of the people will die.
But one third will still be living there.
9 I will bring these people through fire.
As men clean silver in the fire, so I will clean them.
As men test gold in the fire, so I will test them.
They will speak my name and I will answer them.
I will say, “They are my people.”
They will say, “The Lord is our God.” ’
The Lord comes
14 There will be a day when your enemies will take away everything. They will take away everything that is yours. They will each have some of your things.
2 I will bring soldiers from all countries to fight against Jerusalem. They will go into the city and they will rob the houses. They will have sex with the women. They will lead away half the people to other countries. They will let the other half stay in Jerusalem.
3 Then the Lord will go out. And he will fight against the people from those countries as in past years.
4 On that day, the Lord's feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. This mountain is east of Jerusalem. It will break in two from east to west and it will make a wide valley. Half of the mountain will move north and half of the mountain will move south.
5 In the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, you ran away when the earth moved. You will do this again. Then the Lord will come. And all those who are holy will come with him.[f]
6 On that day, it will not be light in some places and dark in other places.
7 It will be a day like no other day. There will be no night. When it is evening, there will still be light. Only the Lord himself will know that day.
8 On that day, water will come out from Jerusalem. Half of this water will go towards the sea in the east. Half of this water will go towards the sea in the west. This will go on during summer and winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be only one Lord and he will have only one name.
10 All the land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become flat. But Jerusalem will rise and it will be high in its place. The city will be from the Gate of Benjamin to the Corner Gate and to the High Building of Hananel. The place where the servants of the king make his wine will be in it too.
11 Jerusalem will be safe. People will live there. Nobody will destroy Jerusalem ever again.
12 The Lord will make the people sick that fought against Jerusalem. Their bodies will become bad as they stand on their feet. Their eyes will become bad and they will fall out. And their tongues will become bad in their mouths.
13 On that day, the Lord will make men so afraid that each man will attack the man next to him.
14 Judah also will go to Jerusalem and they will fight. They will take every good thing from all the countries. There will be a lot of expensive metals and many rich clothes.
15 The horses and all the other animals will be sick. And they will die as the soldiers died.
16 Some of the soldiers from the countries that attacked Jerusalem will not die. They will go to Jerusalem year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty. They will worship him at the Feast of Huts.[g]
17 All the people on the earth will have to go to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty. If any people on the earth do not go, they will have no rain.
18 If the people from Egypt do not go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, they will have no rain. And the Lord will make them sick. If the people from other countries will not go to Jerusalem, the Lord will make them sick. They will die.
19 This will happen to the people from Egypt. This will happen to the people from all the countries that do not go up to Jerusalem at that time.
20 On that day, men will write the words, ‘This is for the Lord’ on the bells of the horses. The pots that anyone uses to cook with in the house of the Lord will be special. They will be as special as the dishes in front of the altar.
21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be for the Lord Almighty. All the people who come to offer animals to the Lord will cook in those pots. On that day, nobody who sells things will come into the house of the Lord Almighty.
Footnotes
- 9:10 Ephraim was the name that people used for the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
- 10:11 Many years ago, Moses led Israel's people out of Egypt. The Lord made a dry path for them through the Red Sea. The Lord will make the river Nile dry as he did to the Red Sea then.
- 11:4 Zechariah will now talk about shepherds. But now he means the rulers who should help their people.
- 12:7 King David was the greatest king of Israel.
- 12:11 Some Bible students think that this means 2 Chronicles 35:20-25. Some students think that it means Judges 20:30—21:3.
- 14:5 We are not sure what ‘those who are holy’ means. Some students think that these are people. And some students think that they are angels.
- 14:16 During the Feast of Huts, the Jews remember that the Lord was kind to his people when they left Egypt many years ago. See Leviticus 23:34.
Zechariah 9-14
New International Version
Zechariah 9-14
New International Version
Judgment on Israel’s Enemies
9 A prophecy:(A)
The word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrak
and will come to rest on Damascus(B)—
for the eyes of all people and all the tribes of Israel
are on the Lord—[a]
2 and on Hamath(C) too, which borders on it,
and on Tyre(D) and Sidon,(E) though they are very skillful.
3 Tyre has built herself a stronghold;
she has heaped up silver like dust,
and gold like the dirt of the streets.(F)
4 But the Lord will take away her possessions
and destroy(G) her power on the sea,
and she will be consumed by fire.(H)
5 Ashkelon(I) will see it and fear;
Gaza will writhe in agony,
and Ekron too, for her hope will wither.
Gaza will lose her king
and Ashkelon will be deserted.
6 A mongrel people will occupy Ashdod,
and I will put an end(J) to the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will take the blood from their mouths,
the forbidden food from between their teeth.
Those who are left will belong to our God(K)
and become a clan in Judah,
and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.(L)
8 But I will encamp(M) at my temple
to guard it against marauding forces.(N)
Never again will an oppressor overrun my people,
for now I am keeping watch.(O)
The Coming of Zion’s King
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!(P)
Shout,(Q) Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,(R)
righteous and victorious,(S)
lowly and riding on a donkey,(T)
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.(U)
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.(V)
He will proclaim peace(W) to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River[b] to the ends of the earth.(X)
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant(Y) with you,
I will free your prisoners(Z) from the waterless pit.(AA)
12 Return to your fortress,(AB) you prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twice(AC) as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow(AD)
and fill it with Ephraim.(AE)
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece,(AF)
and make you like a warrior’s sword.(AG)
The Lord Will Appear
14 Then the Lord will appear over them;(AH)
his arrow will flash like lightning.(AI)
The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet;(AJ)
he will march in the storms(AK) of the south,
15 and the Lord Almighty will shield(AL) them.
They will destroy
and overcome with slingstones.(AM)
They will drink and roar as with wine;(AN)
they will be full like a bowl(AO)
used for sprinkling[c] the corners(AP) of the altar.
16 The Lord their God will save his people on that day(AQ)
as a shepherd saves his flock.
They will sparkle in his land
like jewels in a crown.(AR)
17 How attractive and beautiful they will be!
Grain will make the young men thrive,
and new wine the young women.
The Lord Will Care for Judah
10 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;
it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.
He gives showers of rain(AS) to all people,
and plants of the field(AT) to everyone.
2 The idols(AU) speak deceitfully,
diviners(AV) see visions that lie;
they tell dreams(AW) that are false,
they give comfort in vain.(AX)
Therefore the people wander like sheep
oppressed for lack of a shepherd.(AY)
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;(AZ)
for the Lord Almighty will care
for his flock, the people of Judah,
and make them like a proud horse in battle.(BA)
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,(BB)
from him the tent peg,(BC)
from him the battle bow,(BD)
from him every ruler.
5 Together they[d] will be like warriors in battle
trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.(BE)
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.(BF)
6 “I will strengthen(BG) Judah
and save the tribes of Joseph.
I will restore them
because I have compassion(BH) on them.(BI)
They will be as though
I had not rejected them,
for I am the Lord their God
and I will answer(BJ) them.
7 The Ephraimites will become like warriors,
and their hearts will be glad as with wine.(BK)
Their children will see it and be joyful;
their hearts will rejoice(BL) in the Lord.
8 I will signal(BM) for them
and gather them in.
Surely I will redeem them;
they will be as numerous(BN) as before.
9 Though I scatter them among the peoples,
yet in distant lands they will remember me.(BO)
They and their children will survive,
and they will return.
10 I will bring them back from Egypt
and gather them from Assyria.(BP)
I will bring them to Gilead(BQ) and Lebanon,
and there will not be room(BR) enough for them.
11 They will pass through the sea of trouble;
the surging sea will be subdued
and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.(BS)
Assyria’s pride(BT) will be brought down
and Egypt’s scepter(BU) will pass away.(BV)
12 I will strengthen(BW) them in the Lord
and in his name they will live securely,(BX)”
declares the Lord.
11 Open your doors, Lebanon,(BY)
so that fire(BZ) may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;
the stately trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks(CA) of Bashan;
the dense forest(CB) has been cut down!(CC)
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;
their rich pastures are destroyed!
Listen to the roar of the lions;(CD)
the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!(CE)
Two Shepherds
4 This is what the Lord my God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.(CF) 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them.(CG) 6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares the Lord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors(CH) and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”(CI)
7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter,(CJ) particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
The flock detested(CK) me, and I grew weary of them 9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish.(CL) Let those who are left eat(CM) one another’s flesh.”
10 Then I took my staff called Favor(CN) and broke it, revoking(CO) the covenant I had made with all the nations. 11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.(CP)
13 And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver(CQ) and threw them to the potter at the house of the Lord.(CR)
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,(CS)
who deserts the flock!
May the sword strike his arm(CT) and his right eye!
May his arm be completely withered,
his right eye totally blinded!”(CU)
Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed
12 A prophecy:(CV) The word of the Lord concerning Israel.
The Lord, who stretches out the heavens,(CW) who lays the foundation of the earth,(CX) and who forms the human spirit within a person,(CY) declares: 2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup(CZ) that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling.(DA) Judah(DB) will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. 3 On that day, when all the nations(DC) of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock(DD) for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure(DE) themselves. 4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares the Lord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.(DF) 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong,(DG) because the Lord Almighty is their God.’
6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot(DH) in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume(DI) all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact(DJ) in her place.
7 “The Lord will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.(DK) 8 On that day the Lord will shield(DL) those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest(DM) among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God,(DN) like the angel of the Lord going before(DO) them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations(DP) that attack Jerusalem.(DQ)
Mourning for the One They Pierced
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[e](DR) of grace and supplication.(DS) They will look on[f] me, the one they have pierced,(DT) and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child,(DU) and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.(DV) 11 On that day the weeping(DW) in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.(DX) 12 The land will mourn,(DY) each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.(DZ)
Cleansing From Sin
13 “On that day a fountain(EA) will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse(EB) them from sin and impurity.
2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols(EC) from the land, and they will be remembered no more,”(ED) declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets(EE) and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies(EF) in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.(EG)
4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed(EH) of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment(EI) of hair(EJ) in order to deceive.(EK) 5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.[g]’(EL) 6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body[h]?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered
7 “Awake, sword,(EM) against my shepherd,(EN)
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,(EO)
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.(EP)
9 This third I will put into the fire;(EQ)
I will refine them like silver(ER)
and test them like gold.(ES)
They will call(ET) on my name(EU)
and I will answer(EV) them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’(EW)
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.(EX)’”
The Lord Comes and Reigns
14 A day of the Lord(EY) is coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions(EZ) will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.
2 I will gather all the nations(FA) to Jerusalem to fight against it;(FB) the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped.(FC) Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.(FD) 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight(FE) against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.(FF) 4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,(FG) east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split(FH) in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. 5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake[i](FI) in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come,(FJ) and all the holy ones with him.(FK)
6 On that day there will be neither sunlight(FL) nor cold, frosty darkness. 7 It will be a unique(FM) day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night.(FN) When evening comes, there will be light.(FO)
8 On that day living water(FP) will flow(FQ) out from Jerusalem, half of it east(FR) to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.(FS)
9 The Lord will be king(FT) over the whole earth.(FU) On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.(FV)
10 The whole land, from Geba(FW) to Rimmon,(FX) south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up(FY) high from the Benjamin Gate(FZ) to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate,(GA) and from the Tower of Hananel(GB) to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place.(GC) 11 It will be inhabited;(GD) never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.(GE)
12 This is the plague with which the Lord will strike(GF) all the nations that fought 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.(GG) 13 On that day people will be stricken by the Lord with great panic.(GH) They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another.(GI) 14 Judah(GJ) too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected(GK)—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing. 15 A similar plague(GL) will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
16 Then the survivors(GM) from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship(GN) the King,(GO) the Lord Almighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.(GP) 17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship(GQ) the King, the Lord Almighty, they will have no rain.(GR) 18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. The Lord[j] will bring on them the plague(GS) he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.(GT) 19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.(GU)
20 On that day holy to the Lord(GV) will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots(GW) in the Lord’s house will be like the sacred bowls(GX) in front of the altar. 21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy(GY) to the Lord Almighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day(GZ) there will no longer be a Canaanite[k](HA) in the house(HB) of the Lord Almighty.(HC)
Footnotes
- Zechariah 9:1 Or Damascus. / For the eye of the Lord is on all people, / as well as on the tribes of Israel,
- Zechariah 9:10 That is, the Euphrates
- Zechariah 9:15 Or bowl, / like
- Zechariah 10:5 Or ruler, all of them together. / 5 They
- Zechariah 12:10 Or the Spirit
- Zechariah 12:10 Or to
- Zechariah 13:5 Or farmer; a man sold me in my youth
- Zechariah 13:6 Or wounds between your hands
- Zechariah 14:5 Or 5 My mountain valley will be blocked and will extend to Azel. It will be blocked as it was blocked because of the earthquake
- Zechariah 14:18 Or part, then the Lord
- Zechariah 14:21 Or merchant
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