Zechariah 12:10-14:21

Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁰and I will pour out on the house of David
and on those living in Yerushalayim
a spirit of grace and prayer;
and they will look to me, whom they pierced.”

They will mourn for him
as one mourns for an only son;
they will be in bitterness on his behalf
like the bitterness for a firstborn son.
¹¹When that day comes, there will be
great mourning in Yerushalayim,
mourning like that for Hadad-Rimmon
in the Megiddo Valley.
¹²Then the land will mourn,
each family by itself —
the family of the house of David by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
the family of the house of Natan 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 Shim‘i by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
¹⁴all the remaining families, each by itself,
and their wives by themselves.

13 When that day comes, a spring will be opened up for the house of David and the people living in Yerushalayim to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ²“When that day comes,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “I will cut off the very names of the idols from the land, so that no one even remembers them any more. I will also expel the [false] prophets and the spirit of uncleanness from the land; ³so that if anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother who brought him into the world will tell him, ‘You cannot continue to live, because you are speaking lies in the name of Adonai’; then his own father and mother who brought him into the world will stab him to death. ⁴When that day comes, each one of the prophets will be shamed by his vision when he prophesies. He will stop wearing a hair cloak to deceive people; ⁵and instead, he will say, ‘I’m no prophet, I just work the soil; since my youth I’ve only wanted to be an ordinary man.’ ⁶If someone asks him, ‘Then what are these gashes between your shoulders?’ he will answer, ‘I got hurt at my friends’ house.’

⁷“Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the young ones.
⁸In time, throughout that land,” says Adonai,
“two-thirds of those in it will be destroyed —
they will die, but one-third will remain.
⁹That third part I will bring through the fire;
I will refine them as silver is refined,
I will test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is my people’
and they will say, ‘Adonai is my God.’”

14 Look, a day is coming for Adonai
when your plunder, [Yerushalayim], will be divided
right there within you.
²“For I will gather all the nations
against Yerushalayim for war.
The city will be taken,
the houses will be rifled,
the women will be raped,
and half the city will go into exile;
but the rest of the people
will not be cut off from the city.”
³Then Adonai will go out
and fight against those nations,
fighting as on a day of battle.
⁴On that day his feet will stand
on the Mount of Olives,
which lies to the east of Yerushalayim;
and the Mount of Olives will be split in half
from east to west, to make a huge valley.
Half of the mountain will move toward the north,
and half of it toward the south.
⁵You will flee to the valley in the mountains,
for the valley in the mountains will reach to Atzel.
You will flee, just as you fled before the earthquake
in the days of ‘Uziyah king of Y’hudah.
Then Adonai my God will come
to you with all the holy ones.

⁶On that day, there will be
neither bright light nor thick darkness;
⁷and one day, known to Adonai,
will be neither day nor night,
although by evening there will be light.
⁸On that day, fresh water will flow
out from Yerushalayim,
half toward the eastern sea
and half toward the western sea,
both summer and winter.
⁹Then Adonai will be king
over the whole world.
On that day Adonai will be the only one,
and his name will be the only name.

¹⁰All the land will be made like the ‘Aravah, from Geva to Rimmon in the Negev. Yerushalayim will be raised up and inhabited where she is, from Binyamin’s Gate to the place where the earlier gate stood, and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hanan’el to the king’s winepresses. ¹¹People will live there, the curse will be broken, and Yerushalayim will live in safety.

¹²Adonai will strike all the peoples who made war against Yerushalayim with a plague in which their flesh rots away while they are standing on their feet, their eyes rot away in their sockets, and their tongues rot away in their mouths. ¹³When that day comes, there will be among them great panic, sent by Adonai, so that everyone lays hands on his neighbor, who in turn attacks him. ¹⁴Y’hudah too will fight against Yerushalayim; and the wealth of all the nations will be assembled — gold, silver and clothing in great abundance. ¹⁵A plague like this plague will also affect the horses, mules, camels, donkeys and all the other animals in those camps.

¹⁶Finally, everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Yerushalayim will go up every year to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, and to keep the festival of Sukkot. ¹⁷If any of the families of the earth does not go up to Yerushalayim to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, no rain will fall on them. ¹⁸If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, if they refuse to come, they will have no [annual] overflow [from the Nile]; moreover, there will be the plague with which Adonai will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot. ¹⁹This will be Egypt’s punishment and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot.

²⁰When that day comes, this will be written on the bells worn by the horses: “Consecrated to Adonai”; and the cooking pots in the house of Adonai will be [as holy] as the sprinkling bowls before the altar. ²¹Yes, every cooking pot in Yerushalayim and Y’hudah will be consecrated to Adonai-Tzva’ot. Everyone who offers sacrifices will come, take them and use them to stew the meat. When that day comes, there will no longer be merchants in the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot.