Zechariah 9-11

New King James Version

Israel Defended Against Enemies

9 The ^[a]burden of the word of the Lord
Against the land of Hadrach,
And ^(A)Damascus its resting place
(For ^(B)the eyes of men
And all the tribes of Israel
Are on the Lord);
²Also against ^(C)Hamath, which borders on it,
And against ^(D)Tyre and ^(E)Sidon, though they are very ^(F)wise.

³For Tyre built herself a tower,
Heaped up silver like the dust,
And gold like the mire of the streets.
⁴Behold, ^(G)the Lord will cast her out;
He will destroy ^(H)her power in the sea,
And she will be devoured by fire.

⁵Ashkelon shall see it and fear;
Gaza also shall be very sorrowful;
And ^(I)Ekron, for He dried up her expectation.
The king shall perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

⁶“A^[b] mixed race shall settle ^(J)in Ashdod,
And I will cut off the pride of the ^(K)Philistines.
⁷I will take away the blood from his mouth,
And the abominations from between his teeth.
But he who remains, even he shall be for our God,
And shall be like a leader in Judah,
And Ekron like a Jebusite.
⁸^(L)I will camp around My house
Because of the army,
Because of him who passes by and him who returns.
No more shall an oppressor pass through them,
For now I have seen with My eyes.

The Coming King^(M)

⁹“Rejoice ^(N)greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, ^(O)your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰I ^(P)will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
And the horse from Jerusalem;
The ^(Q)battle bow shall be cut off.
He shall speak peace to the nations;
His dominion shall be ^(R)‘from sea to sea,
And from the River to the ends of the earth.’

God Will Save His People

¹¹“As for you also,
Because of the blood of your covenant,
I will set your ^(S)prisoners free from the waterless pit.
¹²Return to the stronghold,
^(T)You prisoners of hope.
Even today I declare
That I will restore ^(U)double to you.
¹³For I have bent Judah, My bow,
Fitted the bow with Ephraim,
And raised up your sons, O Zion,
Against your sons, O Greece,
And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”

¹⁴Then the Lord will be seen over them,
And ^(V)His arrow will go forth like lightning.
The Lord God will blow the trumpet,
And go ^(W)with whirlwinds from the south.
¹⁵The Lord of hosts will ^(X)defend them;
They shall devour and subdue with slingstones.
They shall drink and roar as if with wine;
They shall be filled with blood like ^[c]basins,
Like the corners of the altar.
¹⁶The Lord their God will ^(Y)save them in that day,
As the flock of His people.
For ^(Z)they shall be like the ^[d]jewels of a crown,
^(AA)Lifted like a banner over His land—
¹⁷For ^(AB)how great is ^[e]its goodness
And how great its ^(AC)beauty!
^(AD)Grain shall make the young men thrive,
And new wine the young women.

Restoration of Judah and Israel

10 Ask ^(AE)the Lord for ^(AF)rain
In ^(AG)the time of the ^[f]latter rain.
The Lord will make ^[g]flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.

²For the ^(AH)idols^[h] speak delusion;
The diviners envision ^(AI)lies,
And tell false dreams;
They ^(AJ)comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wend their way like ^(AK)sheep;
They are ^[i]in trouble ^(AL)because there is no shepherd.

³“My anger is kindled against the ^(AM)shepherds,
^(AN)And I will punish the ^[j]goatherds.
For the Lord of hosts ^(AO)will visit His flock,
The house of Judah,
And ^(AP)will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
⁴From him comes ^(AQ)the cornerstone,
From him ^(AR)the tent peg,
From him the battle bow,
From him every ^[k]ruler together.
⁵They shall be like mighty men,
Who ^(AS)tread down their enemies
In the mire of the streets in the battle.
They shall fight because the Lord is with them,
And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.

⁶“I will strengthen the house of Judah,
And I will save the house of Joseph.
^(AT)I will bring them back,
Because I ^(AU)have mercy on them.
They shall be as though I had not cast them aside;
For I am the Lord their God,
And I ^(AV)will hear them.
⁷Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man,
And their ^(AW)heart shall rejoice as if with wine.
Yes, their children shall see it and be glad;
Their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.
⁸I will ^(AX)whistle for them and gather them,
For I will redeem them;
^(AY)And they shall increase as they once increased.

⁹“I^(AZ) will ^[l]sow them among the peoples,
And they shall ^(BA)remember Me in far countries;
They shall live, together with their children,
And they shall return.
¹⁰^(BB)I will also bring them back from the land of Egypt,
And gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,
^(BC)Until no more room is found for them.
¹¹^(BD)He shall pass through the sea with affliction,
And strike the waves of the sea:
All the depths of ^[m]the River shall dry up.
Then ^(BE)the pride of Assyria shall be brought down,
And ^(BF)the scepter of Egypt shall depart.

¹²“So I will strengthen them in the Lord,
And ^(BG)they shall walk up and down in His name,”
Says the Lord.

Desolation of Israel

11 Open ^(BH)your doors, O Lebanon,
That fire may devour your cedars.
²Wail, O cypress, for the ^(BI)cedar has fallen,
Because the mighty trees are ruined.
Wail, O oaks of Bashan,
^(BJ)For the thick forest has come down.
³There is the sound of wailing ^(BK)shepherds!
For their glory is in ruins.
There is the sound of roaring lions!
For the ^[n]pride of the Jordan is in ruins.

Prophecy of the Shepherds

⁴Thus says the Lord my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter, ⁵whose owners slaughter them and ^(BL)feel no guilt; those who sell them ^(BM)say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do ^(BN)not pity them. ⁶For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the Lord. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall ^[o]attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

⁷So I fed the flock for slaughter, ^[p]in particular ^(BO)the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called ^[q]Beauty, and the other I called ^[r]Bonds; and I fed the flock. ⁸I ^[s]dismissed the three shepherds ^(BP)in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not feed you. ^(BQ)Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰And I took my staff, ^[t]Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹So it was broken on that day. Thus ^(BR)the^[u] poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. ¹²Then I said to them, “If it is ^[v]agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they ^(BS)weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the ^(BT)potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter. ¹⁴Then I cut in two my other staff, ^[w]Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the Lord said to me, ^(BU)“Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in ^(BV)pieces.

¹⁷“Woe^(BW) to the worthless shepherd,
Who leaves the flock!
A sword shall be against his arm
And against his right eye;
His arm shall completely wither,
And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”

Footnotes

Zechariah 9:1 oracle, prophecy
Zechariah 9:6 Lit. An illegitimate one
Zechariah 9:15 Sacrificial basins
Zechariah 9:16 Lit. stones
Zechariah 9:17 Lit. His
Zechariah 10:1 Spring rain
Zechariah 10:1 Or lightning flashes
Zechariah 10:2 Heb. teraphim
Zechariah 10:2 afflicted
Zechariah 10:3 Leaders
Zechariah 10:4 Or despot
Zechariah 10:9 Or scatter
Zechariah 10:11 The Nile
Zechariah 11:3 Or floodplain, thicket
Zechariah 11:6 Lit. strike
Zechariah 11:7 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX for the Canaanites
Zechariah 11:7 Or Grace
Zechariah 11:7 Or Unity
Zechariah 11:8 Or destroyed, lit. cut off
Zechariah 11:10 Or Grace
Zechariah 11:11 So with MT, Tg., Vg.; LXX the Canaanites
Zechariah 11:12 good in your sight
Zechariah 11:14 Or Unity

1 John 3

New King James Version

The Command to Love

3 Behold ^(A)what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that ^(B)we should be called children of ^[a]God! Therefore the world does not know ^[b]us, ^(C)because it did not know Him. ²Beloved, ^(D)now we are children of God; and ^(E)it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, ^(F)we shall be like Him, for ^(G)we shall see Him as He is. ³^(H)And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Sin and the Child of God

⁴Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and ^(I)sin is lawlessness. ⁵And you know ^(J)that He was manifested ^(K)to take away our sins, and ^(L)in Him there is no sin. ⁶Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. ⁸^(M)He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, ^(N)that He might destroy the works of the devil. ⁹Whoever has been ^(O)born of God does not sin, for ^(P)His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

The Imperative of Love^(Q)

¹⁰In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. ¹¹For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, ^(R)that we should love one another, ¹²not as ^(S)Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

¹³Do not marvel, my brethren, if ^(T)the world hates you. ¹⁴We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love ^[c]his brother abides in death. ¹⁵^(U)Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that ^(V)no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

The Outworking of Love

¹⁶^(W)By this we know love, ^(X)because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. ¹⁷But ^(Y)whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?

¹⁸My little children, ^(Z)let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. ¹⁹And by this we ^[d]know ^(AA)that we are of the truth, and shall ^[e]assure our hearts before Him. ²⁰^(AB)For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, ^(AC)we have confidence toward God. ²²And ^(AD)whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments ^(AE)and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. ²³And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ ^(AF)and love one another, as He gave ^[f]us commandment.

The Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error

²⁴Now ^(AG)he who keeps His commandments ^(AH)abides in Him, and He in him. And ^(AI)by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.