Zechariah 12-14

Lexham English Bible

The Day of Yahweh

12 An oracle. The word of Yahweh concerning Israel. “Thus declares^[a] Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, founds the earth, and forms the spirit of humankind in its midst:^{[b] 2} ‘Look, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding nations; it will also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. ³ And then^[c] on that day I will make Jerusalem a stone weight^[d] for all the peoples. All those lifting it up will grievously hurt themselves, and all the nations of the earth will assemble against it. ⁴ On that day,’ declares^[e] Yahweh, ‘I will strike every horse with confusion, and the one riding it with madness; but over the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open,^[f] and I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵ And the clans of Judah will say to themselves,^[g] “The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to us,^[h] through Yahweh of hosts, their God.”

⁶ “‘On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a pan of fire among sticks of wood, and like a torch of fire among stalks^[i] of grain, and they will devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, and Jerusalem will be inhabited again in its place, in Jerusalem. ⁷ And Yahweh will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants^[j] of Jerusalem may not be exalted over Judah. ⁸ On that day Yahweh will put a shield around the inhabitants^[k] of Jerusalem, and the one who stumbles among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of Yahweh, before them.^{[l] 9} And then^[m] on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations coming against Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “‘I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants^[n] of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as one grieves bitterly over a firstborn. ¹¹ On that day the wailing will be great in Jerusalem, like the wailing for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² And the land shall mourn, each clan by itself;^[o] the clan of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the clan of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the clan of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴ and all those clans remaining, each clan by itself,^[p] and their wives by themselves.’”

13 “‘On that day a well will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and from impurity.^{[q] 2} And then,^[r] on that day,’ declares^[s] Yahweh of hosts, ‘I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I will banish from the land. ³ And then,^[t] if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, “You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!” And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies. ⁴ And then^[u] on that day, each of the prophets will be ashamed because of his vision when he was prophesying, and they will not put on a cloak of hair in order to deceive, ⁵ but he will say, “I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the soil, for a man has acquired me since my youth.”^{[v] 6} And someone^[w] shall say to him, “What are these wounds between your arms?”^[x] and he will say, “Those I have received^[y] in the house of the ones who love me.”’”

The Sword Shall Strike the Shepherd

Zechariah’s Apocalyptic Vision

14 Look! A day is coming for Yahweh, when your plunder will be divided in your midst. ² I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, and they will loot the houses, and the women will be raped; half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city. ³ Then Yahweh will go forth and fight against those nations, like when he fights^[aj] on a day of battle. ⁴ On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives,^[ak] which faces Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives^[al] will be split in half,^[am] from east to west, by a very great valley; and half of the mountain will withdraw toward the north, and the other half toward the south. ⁵ And you will flee by the valley of my mountains, because the valley of the mountains will reach to Azal, and you will flee like you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. And Yahweh my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.^[an]

⁶ And then^[ao] on that day there will not be light,^[ap] the precious things will congeal.^{[aq] 7} There shall be continuous day—it is known to Yahweh—not day and not night; and at evening time there will be light.

⁸ And then^[ar] on that day, living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea,^[as] and the other half to the western sea;^[at] it will happen both in the summer and in the winter. ⁹ And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; on that day Yahweh will be one and his name one. ¹⁰ All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau^[au] from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it^[av] will rise up high and it will stay^[aw] in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. ¹¹ And they^[ax] will dwell in it, and there will be no more ban imposed,^[ay] and Jerusalem will dwell in security.

¹² And this will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their^[az] flesh will rot while they^[ba] are standing on their^[bb] feet; their^[bc] eyes will rot in their sockets, and their^[bd] tongues^[be] will rot in their mouths.^{[bf] 13} And then^[bg] on that day a great panic from Yahweh will fall^[bh] on them, and they will seize one another’s hand,^[bi] and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of another.^{[bj] 14} And Judah also will fight at^[bk] Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—gold and silver, and garments in great abundance.^{[bl] 15} Like this plague^[bm] will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, and the donkey, and every kind of animal in those camps.

¹⁶ And then^[bn] every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year^[bo] to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths.^{[bp] 17} And then^[bq] whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them. ¹⁸ And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. ¹⁹ This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

²⁰ On that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to Yahweh.” And the cooking pots in the house^[br] of Yahweh will be holy like the sacrificial basins^[bs] before the altar. ²¹ And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a trader^[bt] in the house^[bu] of Yahweh of hosts on that day.