Zechariah 12-14

New King James Version

The Coming Deliverance of Judah

12 The ^[a]burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, ^(A)who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(B)forms the spirit of man within him: ²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem ^(C)a cup of ^[b]drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. ³^(D)And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem ^(E)a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. ⁴In that day,” says the Lord, ^(F)“I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’ ⁶In that day I will make the governors of Judah ^(G)like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem.

⁷“The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. ⁸In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them. ⁹It shall be in that day that I will seek to ^(H)destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning for the Pierced One

¹⁰^(I)“And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will ^(J)look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him ^(K)as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. ¹¹In that day there shall be a great ^(L)mourning in Jerusalem, ^(M)like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of ^[c]Megiddo. ¹²^(N)And the land shall 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 ^(O)Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹³the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

Idolatry Cut Off

13 “In that ^(P)day ^(Q)a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for ^(R)uncleanness.

²“It shall be in that day,” says the Lord of hosts, “that I will ^(S)cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause ^(T)the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. ³It shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall ^(U)not live, because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who begot him ^(V)shall thrust him through when he prophesies.

⁴“And it shall be in that day that ^(W)every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear ^(X)a robe of coarse hair to deceive. ⁵^(Y)But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’ ⁶And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your ^[d]arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Savior

⁷“Awake, O sword, against ^(Z)My Shepherd,
Against the Man ^(AA)who is My Companion,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
^(AB)“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against ^(AC)the little ones.
⁸And it shall come to pass in all the land,”
Says the Lord,
“That ^(AD)two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die,
^(AE)But one-third shall be left in it:
⁹I will bring the one-third ^(AF)through the fire,
Will ^(AG)refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
^(AH)They will call on My name,
And I will answer them.
^(AI)I will say, ‘This is My people’;
And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”

The Day of the Lord^(AJ)

14 Behold, ^(AK)the day of the Lord is coming,
And your ^[e]spoil will be divided in your midst.
²For ^(AL)I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses ^[f]rifled,
And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

³Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
⁴And in that day His feet will stand ^(AM)on the Mount of Olives,
Which faces Jerusalem on the east.
And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two,
From east to west,
^(AN)Making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north
And half of it toward the south.

⁵Then you shall flee through My mountain valley,
For the mountain valley shall reach to Azal.
Yes, you shall flee
As you fled from the ^(AO)earthquake
In the days of Uzziah king of Judah.

^(AP)Thus the Lord my God will come,
And ^(AQ)all the saints with ^[g]You.

⁶It shall come to pass in that day
That there will be no light;
The ^[h]lights will diminish.
⁷It shall be one day
^(AR)Which is known to the Lord—
Neither day nor night.
But at ^(AS)evening time it shall happen
That it will be light.

⁸And in that day it shall be
That living ^(AT)waters shall flow from Jerusalem,
Half of them toward ^[i]the eastern sea
And half of them toward ^[j]the western sea;
In both summer and winter it shall occur.
⁹And the Lord shall be ^(AU)King over all the earth.
In that day it shall be—
^(AV)“The Lord is one,”
And His name one.

¹⁰All the land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. ^[k]Jerusalem shall be raised up and ^(AW)inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate and the Corner Gate, ^(AX)and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.

¹¹The people shall dwell in it;
And ^(AY)no longer shall there be utter destruction,
^(AZ)But Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

¹²And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem:

Their flesh shall ^[l]dissolve while they stand on their feet,
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets,
And their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.

¹³It shall come to pass in that day
That ^(BA)a great panic from the Lord will be among them.
Everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor,
And raise ^(BB)his hand against his neighbor’s hand;
¹⁴Judah also will fight at Jerusalem.
^(BC)And the wealth of all the surrounding nations
Shall be gathered together:
Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.

¹⁵^(BD)Such also shall be the plague
On the horse and the mule,
On the camel and the donkey,
And on all the cattle that will be in those camps.
So shall this plague be.

The Nations Worship the King

¹⁶And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall ^(BE)go up from year to year to ^(BF)worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep ^(BG)the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁷^(BH)And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. ¹⁸If the family of ^(BI)Egypt will not come up and enter in, ^(BJ)they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁹This shall be the ^[m]punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

²⁰In that day ^(BK)“HOLINESS TO THE LORD” shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The ^(BL)pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. ²¹Yes, ^[n]every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts. Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. In that day there shall no longer be a ^(BM)Canaanite ^(BN)in the house of the Lord of hosts.

Footnotes

Zechariah 12:1 oracle, prophecy
Zechariah 12:2 Lit. reeling
Zechariah 12:11 Heb. Megiddon
Zechariah 13:6 Or hands
Zechariah 14:1 plunder or booty
Zechariah 14:2 Or plundered
Zechariah 14:5 Or you; LXX, Tg., Vg. Him
Zechariah 14:6 Lit. glorious ones
Zechariah 14:8 The Dead Sea
Zechariah 14:8 The Mediterranean Sea
Zechariah 14:10 Lit. She
Zechariah 14:12 Lit. decay
Zechariah 14:19 Lit. sin
Zechariah 14:21 Or on every pot . . . shall be engraved “HOLINESS TO THE LORD OF HOSTS”

Ezra 6:14-22

New King James Version

¹⁴^(A)So the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the ^[a]command of ^(B)Cyrus, ^(C)Darius, and ^(D)Artaxerxes king of Persia. ¹⁵Now the temple was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. ¹⁶Then the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites and the rest of the descendants of the captivity, celebrated ^(E)the dedication of this ^[b]house of God with joy. ¹⁷And they ^(F)offered sacrifices at the dedication of this house of God, one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁸They assigned the priests to their ^(G)divisions and the Levites to their ^(H)divisions, over the service of God in Jerusalem, ^(I)as it is written in the Book of Moses.

The Passover Celebrated^(J)

¹⁹^[c]And the descendants of the captivity kept the Passover ^(K)on the fourteenth day of the first month. ²⁰For the priests and the Levites had ^(L)purified themselves; all of them were ritually clean. And they ^(M)slaughtered the Passover lambs for all the descendants of the captivity, for their brethren the priests, and for themselves. ²¹Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the ^(N)filth^[d] of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel. ²²And they kept the ^(O)Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for the Lord made them joyful, and ^(P)turned the heart ^(Q)of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

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Footnotes

Ezra 6:14 decree
Ezra 6:16 Temple
Ezra 6:19 The Hebrew language resumes in Ezra 6:19 and continues through 7:11.
Ezra 6:21 uncleanness

Psalm 147

New King James Version

Praise to God for His Word and Providence

147 Praise^[a] the Lord!
For ^(A)it is good to sing praises to our God;
^(B)For it is pleasant, and ^(C)praise is beautiful.

²The Lord ^(D)builds up Jerusalem;
^(E)He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
³^(F)He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their ^[b]wounds.
⁴^(G)He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
⁵^(H)Great is our Lord, and ^(I)mighty in power;
^(J)His understanding is infinite.
⁶^(K)The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.

⁷Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
Sing praises on the harp to our God,
⁸^(L)Who covers the heavens with clouds,
Who prepares rain for the earth,
Who makes grass to grow on the mountains.
⁹^(M)He gives to the beast its food,
And ^(N)to the young ravens that cry.

¹⁰^(O)He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
¹¹The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him,
In those who hope in His mercy.

¹²Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
¹³For He has strengthened the bars of your gates;
He has blessed your children within you.
¹⁴^(P)He makes peace in your borders,
And ^(Q)fills you with ^[c]the finest wheat.

¹⁵^(R)He sends out His command to the earth;
His word runs very swiftly.
¹⁶^(S)He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes;
¹⁷He casts out His hail like ^[d]morsels;
Who can stand before His cold?
¹⁸^(T)He sends out His word and melts them;
He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.

¹⁹^(U)He declares His word to Jacob,
^(V)His statutes and His judgments to Israel.
²⁰^(W)He has not dealt thus with any nation;
And as for His judgments, they have not known them.