Zechariah 11-14

New American Standard Bible 1995

The Doomed Flock

11 Open your doors, O Lebanon,

⁴ Thus says the Lord my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to ^(E)slaughter. ⁵ Those who buy them slay them and ^[d]go ^(F)unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for ^(G)I have become rich!’ And their ^(H)own shepherds have no pity on them. ⁶ For I will ^(I)no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord; “but behold, I will ^(J)cause the men to ^[e]fall, each into another’s ^[f]power and into the ^[g]power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will ^(K)not deliver them from their ^[h]power.”

⁷ So I ^(L)pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, ^[i]hence the ^(M)afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two ^(N)staffs: the one I called ^[j](O)Favor and the other I called ^[k](P)Union; so I pastured the flock. ⁸ Then I annihilated the three shepherds in ^(Q)one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also ^[l]was weary of me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will not pasture you. What is to ^(R)die, ^[m]let it die, and what is to be annihilated, ^[n]let it be annihilated; and ^[o]let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.” ¹⁰ I took my staff ^[p](S)Favor and cut it in pieces, to ^[q](T)break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹ So it was ^[r]broken on that day, and ^[s]thus the ^(U)afflicted of the flock who were watching me realized that it was the word of the Lord. ¹² I said to them, “If it is good in your sight, give me my ^(V)wages; but if not, ^[t]never mind!” So they weighed out ^(W)thirty shekels of silver as my wages. ¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(X)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. ¹⁴ Then I cut in pieces my second staff ^[u](Y)Union, to ^(Z)break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ The Lord said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a ^[v](AA)foolish shepherd. ¹⁶ For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will ^(AB)not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will ^(AC)devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs.

Jerusalem to Be Attacked

12 The ^[x]burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel.

Thus declares the Lord who ^(AG)stretches out the heavens, ^(AH)lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(AI)forms the spirit of man within him, ² “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^(AJ)cup ^[y]that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^(AK)Judah. ³ It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^(AL)stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be ^(AM)severely ^[z]injured. And all the ^(AN)nations of the earth will be gathered against it. ⁴ In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment and his rider with madness. But I will ^[aa]watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵ Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘^[ab]A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the Lord of hosts, their God.’

⁶ “In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a ^(AO)firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right hand and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while the ^(AP)inhabitants of Jerusalem again dwell on their own sites in Jerusalem. ⁷ The Lord also will ^(AQ)save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of ^(AR)David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah. ⁸ In that day the Lord will ^(AS)defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^[ac](AT)is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^(AU)God, like the ^(AV)angel of the Lord before them. ⁹ And in that day I will ^[ad](AW)set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “I will ^(AX)pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ^[ae]the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have ^(AY)pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one ^(AZ)mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. ¹¹ In that day there will be great ^(BA)mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ^[af]plain of ^[ag]Megiddo. ¹² The 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; ¹³ the 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; ¹⁴ all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.

False Prophets Ashamed

13 “In that day a ^(BB)fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for ^(BC)sin and for ^(BD)impurity.

² “It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord of hosts, “that I will ^(BE)cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also remove the ^(BF)prophets and the ^(BG)unclean spirit from the land. ³ And if anyone still ^(BH)prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall ^(BI)not live, for you have spoken ^(BJ)falsely in the name of the Lord’; and his ^(BK)father and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies. ⁴ Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be ^(BL)ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a ^(BM)hairy robe in order to deceive; ⁵ but he will say, ‘I am ^(BN)not a prophet; I am a tiller of the ground, for a man ^[ah]sold me as a slave in my youth.’ ⁶ And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds ^(BO)between your ^[ai]arms?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of ^[aj]my friends.’

God Will Battle Jerusalem’s Foes

14 Behold, a ^(BZ)day is coming for the Lord when ^(CA)the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. ² For I will ^(CB)gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the ^(CC)houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. ³ Then the Lord will go forth and ^(CD)fight against those nations, as ^[al]when He fights on a day of battle. ⁴ In that day His feet will ^(CE)stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be ^(CF)split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. ⁵ You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the ^(CG)earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. ^(CH)Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with ^[am]Him!

⁶ In that day there will be ^(CI)no light; the ^[an]luminaries will dwindle. ⁷ For it will be ^(CJ)a unique day which is ^(CK)known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at ^(CL)evening time there will be light.

⁸ And in that day ^(CM)living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.

God Will Be King over All

⁹ And the Lord will be ^(CN)king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only ^(CO)one, and His name the only one.

¹⁰ All the land will be changed into a plain from ^(CP)Geba to ^(CQ)Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but ^[ao]Jerusalem will ^(CR)rise and ^(CS)remain on its site from ^(CT)Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the ^(CU)Corner Gate, and from the ^(CV)Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. ^11 [ap]People will live in it, and there will ^(CW)no longer be a curse, for Jerusalem will ^(CX)dwell in security.

¹² Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will ^(CY)rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. ¹³ It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will ^[aq]fall on them; and they will ^(CZ)seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will ^[ar]be lifted against the hand of another. ^14 (DA)Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the ^(DB)wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance. ¹⁵ So also like this ^(DC)plague will be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps.

¹⁶ Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will ^(DD)go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the ^(DE)Feast of Booths. ¹⁷ And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the ^(DF)King, the Lord of hosts, there will be ^(DG)no rain on them. ¹⁸ If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the ^(DH)plague with which the Lord smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. ¹⁹ This will be the ^[as]punishment of Egypt, and the ^[at]punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.

²⁰ In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “^(DI)HOLY TO THE LORD.” And the ^(DJ)cooking pots in the Lord’s house will be like the bowls before the altar. ²¹ Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be ^(DK)holy to the Lord of hosts; and all who sacrifice will come and take of them and boil in them. And there will no longer be a ^[au](DL)Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day.