The Lord Promises to Build Jerusalem Again

8 Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ² “The Lord of All says, ‘I am very jealous for Zion. I am jealous for her with much anger.’ ³ The Lord says, ‘I will return to Zion and live in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of All will be called the Holy Mountain.’ ⁴ The Lord of All says, ‘Old men and old women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem again. Each man will have a walking stick in his hand because he will be old. ⁵ And the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets.’ ⁶ The Lord of All says, ‘It may be wonderful to the few people here in those days, but will it be wonderful to Me also?’ says the Lord of All. ⁷ The Lord of All says, ‘I am going to save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west. ⁸ I will bring them back and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be My people and I will be their God. I will be faithful and do what is right and good for them.’

⁹ “The Lord of All says, ‘You who are now listening to these words spoken through the men of God who were there when the Lord’s house was started, let your hands be strong for building the Lord’s house. ¹⁰ Before that time there was no pay for man or animal. No one could come in or go out in peace because of those who hated him. I turned people against one another. ¹¹ But now I will not do to the rest of these people as I did in the past,’ says the Lord of All. ¹² ‘The seed will grow in peace. The vine will give its fruit. The land will give its food. The heavens will give water on the grass in the early morning. And I will let the rest of this people have all these things. ¹³ O people of Judah and Israel, just as you were a curse among the nations, I will save you and make you something good. Do not be afraid. Let your hands be strong.’

¹⁴ “The Lord of All says, ‘I wanted to hurt you because your fathers made Me angry. ¹⁵ But now I want to do good to Jerusalem and to the people of Judah. Do not be afraid. ¹⁶ These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another. Judge with truth so there will be peace within your gates. ¹⁷ Do not make sinful plans against one another in your hearts. And do not love to make false promises. For I hate all these things,’ says the Lord.”

¹⁸ Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹⁹ “The Lord of All says, ‘The times when you do not eat in the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months will become glad times of joy. They will become happy, special suppers for the people of Judah. So love truth and peace.’ ²⁰ The Lord of All says, ‘Many people will yet come from many cities. ²¹ The people of one city will say to another, “Let us go at once and pray to the Lord and ask for His favor. I will go also.” ²² ‘So many people and powerful nations will come to look for the Lord of All in Jerusalem and to ask for the Lord’s favor.’ ²³ The Lord of All says, ‘In those days ten men from the nations of every language will take hold of the coat of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

Other Nations Are Judged

9 The Word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. For the eyes of men and all the family groups of Israel are on the Lord. ² The Word of the Lord is against Hamath also, which is beside Hadrach, and against Tyre and Sidon, even though they are very wise. ³ For Tyre built a strong tower for herself. She gathered silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets. ⁴ But the Lord will take away her riches and throw them into the sea. And she will be destroyed by fire. ⁵ Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza will suffer with much pain. So will Ekron, for her hope will be destroyed. Gaza will lose her king, and no one will live in Ashkelon. ⁶ A mixed people will live in Ashdod, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines. ⁷ I will take the blood from their mouths, and the unclean food from between their teeth. Those who are left will belong to our God, and be like a family in Judah. Ekron will be like the Jebusites. ⁸ Then I will camp around My land and keep armies from going through it. No one will make it hard for them again, for now I am keeping watch.

The Future King

⁹ Be full of joy, O people of Zion! Call out in a loud voice, O people of Jerusalem! See, your King is coming to you. He is fair and good and has the power to save. He is not proud and sits on a donkey, on the son of a female donkey. ¹⁰ I will destroy the war-wagon from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem. The battle-bow will be broken. He will make peace among the nations and rule from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.

The Lord Will Save His People

¹¹ As for you, because of the blood of My agreement with you, I have set your people free from the deep hole that has no water. ¹² Return to the strong city, you prisoners who have hope. Today I am telling you that I will give you twice as much as you had before. ¹³ I will use Judah as My bow, and Ephraim as My arrow. I will move your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and make you like a soldier’s sword. ¹⁴ Then the Lord will be seen over them, and His arrow will go out like lightning. The Lord God will blow the horn and go in the storm winds of the south. ¹⁵ The Lord of All will fight for them, and they will destroy, and walk on the stones that were to be thrown at them. They will drink and make much noise as with wine. They will be filled like a cup used for putting blood on the corners of the altar. ¹⁶ The Lord their God will save them on that day as the flock of His people. For they are like the stones of a crown, shining in His land. ¹⁷ How good and how beautiful they will be! Grain will make the young men grow strong. And the young, pure women will grow strong with new wine.

Israel Will Be Brought Home

10 Ask the Lord for rain in the spring time. It is the Lord Who makes the storm clouds. He gives rain to men, and gives vegetables in the field to every one. ² The false gods say what is not true. Those who use their secret ways tell lies about the false dreams they have seen. Their comfort means nothing. So the people go from place to place like sheep and are troubled because they have no shepherd. ³ “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. For the Lord of All has visited His flock, the people of Judah, and will make them like His proud horse in battle. ⁴ From them will come the cornerstone. From them will come the tent nail. From them will come the bow of battle. And from them will come every ruler. ⁵ Together they will be like powerful men, crushing under foot those who hate them into the mud of the streets. They will fight and win the battle against the horsemen because the Lord is with them. ⁶ I will give strength to the family of Judah. I will save the family of Joseph, and I will bring them back, because I have loving-pity on them. They will be as if I had not turned away from them. For I am the Lord their God, and I will answer them. ⁷ Ephraim will be like a powerful man. Their hearts will be glad as with wine. And their children will see it and be glad. Their hearts will have joy in the Lord. ⁸ I will call them together, for I have saved them and set them free. And they will be as many as they were before. ⁹ Even when I send them everywhere among the nations, they will remember Me in far countries. 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 into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until there is no more room for them. ¹¹ When they pass through the sea of trouble, I will hold back the waves in the sea. The whole Nile River will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and Egypt will lose its power. ¹² I will make My people Israel strong in the Lord, and they will walk in His name,” says the Lord.

Strong Men Are Destroyed

11 Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire may destroy your cedars! ² Cry in sorrow, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen. The beautiful trees have been destroyed. Cry in sorrow, O oaks of Bashan, for the many trees have fallen. ³ Listen to the cry of the shepherds, for their great land is laid waste. Listen to the sound of the young lions, for the trees along the valley of the Jordan River lay waste.

The Two Shepherds

⁴ The Lord my God said, “Take care of the flock that is to be killed. ⁵ Those who buy them kill them and are not punished. And those who sell them say, ‘Thanks and honor be to the Lord, for I have become rich!’ Their own shepherds have no pity on them. ⁶ For I will no longer have pity on the people who live in this land,” says the Lord. “I will give everyone over to the power of his neighbor and his king. They will bring trouble to the land, and I will not save them from their power.”

⁷ So I took care of the flock that was to be killed, and those of the flock who suffered. I took two walking sticks. One I called Favor, and the other I called Agreement. I took care of the flock. ⁸ I destroyed the three shepherds in one month. I was angry with them, and they hated me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will not take care of you. Let those die who are to die. And what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. Let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰ And I took my walking stick Favor and cut it in pieces, to break the agreement I had made with all the people. ¹¹ So it was broken on that day. And those of the flock who suffered and were watching me knew that it was the Word of the Lord. ¹² I said to them, “If you think it is right, give me my pay. But if not, keep it.” So they weighed out thirty pieces of silver as my pay. ¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the one who makes pots—the great price they thought I was worth.” So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the pot maker in the house of the Lord. ¹⁴ Then I cut my second walking stick, Agreement, in pieces, to break the agreement between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to me, “Take again the tools of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶ For I am going to have a shepherd rule over the land who will not care for the dying. He will not look for those who were sent everywhere or heal the hurt, or feed those who are well. But he will eat the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their feet. ¹⁷ It is bad for the shepherd who has no worth and who leaves the flock! A sword will destroy his arm and his right eye! His arm will be all dried up, and his right eye will be blind.”

Judah to Be Saved

12 The Word of the Lord about Israel:

The Lord, Who spread out the heavens, who put the earth in its place, and made the spirit of man within him says this about Israel: ² “I am going to make Jerusalem like a cup that makes all the people around it seem to be drunk. Judah will be shut in by armies as well as Jerusalem. ³ On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the people. All who lift it will be hurt. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it. ⁴ On that day,” says the Lord, “I will put fear in every horse, and make the horsemen crazy. But I will watch over the people of Judah, while I make every horse of the nations blind. ⁵ Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong because of the Lord of All, their God.’ ⁶ On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a pot of fire among pieces of wood, like fire among cut grain. They will destroy all the people around them, on the right and on the left. And the people of Jerusalem will again live on their own land in Jerusalem. ⁷ The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the shining-greatness of the family of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah. ⁸ On that day the Lord will fight for the people of Jerusalem. The one who is weak among them on that day will be like David. And the family of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord leading them. ⁹ On that day I will destroy every nation that comes against Jerusalem.

Sorrow in Jerusalem

¹⁰ “I will pour out the Spirit of loving-favor and prayer on the family of David and on those who live in Jerusalem. They will look on Him Whose side they cut. They will cry in sorrow for Him, as one cries for an only son. They will cry much over Him, like those who have lost their first-born son. ¹¹ On that day there will be much crying in Jerusalem, like the cries of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will be filled with sorrow, each family by itself. The families of David and their wives, and the family of Nathan and their wives, will each be filled with sorrow. ¹³ The family of Levi and their wives will cry in sorrow, and the family of the Shimeites and their wives, ¹⁴ and all the families that are left, and their wives.

False Gods and False Preachers

13 “On that day a well of water will be opened for the family of David and for the people of Jerusalem to make them clean from their sin.

² “On that day,” says the Lord of All, “I will destroy the names of the false gods from the land. They will no longer be remembered. And I will take away from the land those who tell what will happen in the future and the unclean spirit. ³ If anyone still tells what will happen in the future, his father and mother who gave birth to him will tell him, ‘You must not live, because you have lied in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who gave birth to him will kill him when he speaks false words. ⁴ On that day those who tell what will happen in the future will each be ashamed of his special dream when he speaks. He will not put on clothing made from hair to fool the people. ⁵ But he will say, ‘I am not a man who speaks for God. I am a farmer. A man sold me as a servant when I was young.’ ⁶ If someone asks him, ‘What are these sores on your back?’ he will answer, ‘They are the sores I received in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Who Saves

⁷ “Wake up, O sword, against My shepherd and against the man who is close to Me,” says the Lord of All. “Kill the shepherd, and the sheep will go everywhere. And I will turn My hand against the little ones. ⁸ In the whole land,” says the Lord, “two-thirds will die, but one-third will be left alive. ⁹ And I will bring the third part through the fire. I will make them pure like silver is made pure. I will test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

The Day of the Lord

14 A day of the Lord is coming when the things of much worth taken from you will be divided among you. ² For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. The city will be taken. The houses will be robbed. The women will be taken against their will. And half of the city will be taken away to a strange land. But the rest of the people will not be taken away from the city. ³ Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. ⁴ On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, in front of Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives will be divided in two from east to west by a very large valley. Half the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. ⁵ You will run away by the valley of My mountains, for it will go as far as Azel. You will run away just as you did when the earth shook in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him. ⁶ On that day there will be no light. The stars of heaven will be made dark. ⁷ It will be a special day which is known to the Lord. It will not be day or night. For when evening comes, there will be light. ⁸ On that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem. Half of them will flow toward the sea in the east. The other half will flow toward the sea in the west. They will flow in summer and in winter.

⁹ The Lord will be King over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one. ¹⁰ The whole land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem will rise and stay on its land from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to where the king’s wine is made. ¹¹ People will live in it, and there will be no more curse. The people of Jerusalem will live without fear.

¹² Now this is how the Lord will punish all the people who have gone to war against Jerusalem. Their flesh will waste away while they stand on their feet. Their eyes will waste away in their faces, and their tongues will waste away in their mouths. ¹³ On that day the Lord will send much fear upon them. They will take hold of one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be raised against the hand of another. ¹⁴ Judah also will fight at Jerusalem. And the riches of all the nations around will be gathered, much gold and silver and clothing. ¹⁵ The same kind of punishment will come upon the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey, and all the cattle in those camps.

The Nations Worship the King

¹⁶ Then everyone who is left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go each year to worship the King, the Lord of All, and to keep the Special Supper of Tents. ¹⁷ If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of All, they will have no rain. ¹⁸ If the family of Egypt does not go up to worship, then they will have no rain. The Lord will punish them as He punishes the nations that do not go up to keep the Special Supper of Tents.

¹⁹ This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the Special Supper of Tents. ²⁰ On that day, “Holy to the Lord,” will be written on the bells of the horses. And the cooking pots in the house of the Lord will be like the holy dishes in front of the altar. ²¹ Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of All. And all who come bringing gifts in worship will take some of the pots and cook in them. On that day there will no longer be one who buys and sells in the house of the Lord of All.