Zechariah 9-11
Christian Standard Bible
Judgment of Zion’s Enemies
9 A pronouncement:
The word of the Lord
is against the land of Hadrach,
and Damascus(A) is its resting place—
for the eyes of humanity
and all the tribes of Israel
are on the Lord[a]—
2 and also against Hamath,(B) which borders it,
as well as Tyre(C) and Sidon,(D)
though they are very shrewd.
3 Tyre has built herself a fortress;
she has heaped up silver like dust
and gold like the dirt of the streets.
4 Listen! The Lord will impoverish her
and cast her wealth into the sea;
she herself will be consumed by fire.(E)
5 Ashkelon will see it and be afraid;
Gaza too, and will writhe in great pain,
as will Ekron, for her hope will fail.
There will cease to be a king in Gaza,
and Ashkelon will become uninhabited.
6 A mongrel people will live in Ashdod,
and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.(F)
7 I will remove the blood from their mouths
and the abhorrent things(G)
from between their teeth.
Then they too will become a remnant for our God;
they will become like a clan in Judah
and Ekron like the Jebusites.(H)
8 I will encamp at my house as a guard,
against those who march back and forth,
and no oppressor will march against them again,
for now I have seen with my own eyes.
The Coming of Zion’s King
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem!
Look, your King is coming to you;
he is righteous and victorious,[b]
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.(I)
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the horse from Jerusalem.
The bow of war will be removed,
and he will proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion will extend from sea to sea,
from the Euphrates River
to the ends of the earth.(J)
11 As for you,
because of the blood of your covenant,(K)
I will release your prisoners
from the waterless cistern.(L)
12 Return to a stronghold,
you prisoners who have hope;
today I declare that I will restore double to you.(M)
13 For I will bend Judah as my bow;
I will fill that bow with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece.[c](N)
I will make you like a warrior’s sword.
14 Then the Lord will appear over them,
and his arrow will fly like lightning.
The Lord God will sound the ram’s horn
and advance with the southern storms.(O)
15 The Lord of Armies will defend them.
They will consume and conquer with slingstones;
they will drink and be rowdy as if with wine.(P)
They will be as full as the sprinkling basin,(Q)
like those at the corners of the altar.(R)
16 The Lord their God will save them on that day
as the flock of his people;(S)
for they are like jewels in a crown,(T)
sparkling over his land.
17 How lovely and beautiful!
Grain will make the young men flourish,
and new wine, the young women.
The Lord Restores His People
10 Ask the Lord for rain
in the season of spring rain.
The Lord makes the rain clouds,
and he will give them showers of rain
and crops in the field for everyone.(U)
2 For the idols speak falsehood,
and the diviners(V) see illusions;
they relate empty dreams
and offer empty comfort.
Therefore the people wander like sheep;
they suffer affliction because there is no shepherd.
3 My anger burns against the shepherds,
so I will punish the leaders.[d]
For the Lord of Armies has tended his flock,
the house of Judah;
he will make them like his majestic steed in battle.
4 The cornerstone,(W) the tent peg,(X)
the battle bow,(Y) and every ruler—
all will go out from him together.
5 They will be like warriors in battle
trampling down the mud of the streets.
They will fight because the Lord is with them,
and they will put horsemen to shame.
6 I will strengthen the house of Judah
and deliver the house of Joseph.[e]
I will restore[f] them
because I have compassion on them,
and they will be
as though I had never rejected them.(Z)
For I am the Lord their God,
and I will answer them.
7 Ephraim(AA) will be like a warrior,
and their hearts will be glad as if with wine.
Their children will see it and be glad;(AB)
their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will whistle(AC) and gather them
because I have redeemed(AD) them;
they will be as numerous as they once were.
9 Though I sow(AE) them among the nations,
they will remember(AF) me in the distant lands;
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 to the land of Gilead(AG)
and to Lebanon,
but it will not be enough for them.
11 The Lord[g] will pass through the sea of distress
and strike the waves of the sea;
all the depths of the Nile will dry up.(AH)
The pride of Assyria will be brought down,
and the scepter of Egypt will come to an end.
12 I will strengthen(AI) them in the Lord,
and they will march(AJ) in his name—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
Israel’s Shepherds: Good and Bad
11 Open your gates, Lebanon,
and fire will consume your cedars.(AK)
2 Wail, cypress,(AL) for the cedar has fallen;
the glorious trees are destroyed!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,(AM)
for the stately forest has fallen!
3 Listen to the wail(AN) of the shepherds,(AO)
for their glory is destroyed.
Listen to the roar of young lions,(AP)
for the thickets of the Jordan(AQ) are[h] destroyed.
4 The Lord my God says this: “Shepherd the flock intended for slaughter. 5 Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished.(AR) Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord because I have become rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them. 6 Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, I will turn everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”(AS)
7 So I shepherded the flock intended for slaughter, the oppressed of the flock.[i] I took two staffs, calling one Favor(AT) and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of three shepherds. I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let what is dying die, and let what is perishing perish; let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” 10 Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, annulling the covenant I had made with all the peoples. 11 It was annulled on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock[j] who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed my wages, thirty pieces of silver.(AU)
13 “Throw it to the potter,”[k] the Lord said to me—this magnificent price I was valued by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the house of the Lord, to the potter.[l](AV) 14 Then I cut in two my second staff, Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 The Lord also said to me, “Take the equipment of a foolish shepherd. 16 I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are perishing, and he will not seek the lost[m] or heal the broken. He will not sustain the healthy,[n] but he will devour the flesh of the fat sheep(AW) and tear off their hooves.
17 Woe to the worthless shepherd
who deserts the flock!(AX)
May a sword strike[o] his arm
and his right eye!
May his arm wither away
and his right eye go completely blind!”
Footnotes
- 9:1 Or eyes of the Lord are on mankind—
- 9:9 Or and has salvation
- 9:13 Lit Javan
- 10:3 Lit male goats
- 10:6 = the northern kingdom
- 10:6 Other Hb mss, LXX read settle
- 10:11 Lit He
- 11:3 Lit for the majesty of the Jordan is
- 11:7 LXX reads slaughter that belonged to the sheep merchants
- 11:11 LXX reads and the sheep merchants
- 11:13 Syr reads treasury
- 11:13 One Hb ms, Syr read treasury
- 11:16 Or young
- 11:16 Or exhausted
- 11:17 Lit be against
1 John 5
Christian Standard Bible
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,(A) and everyone who loves the Father[a] also loves the one born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children: when we love God and obey[b] his commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden,(B) 4 because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith.
The Certainty of God’s Testimony
5 Who is the one who conquers the world(C) but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?(D) 6 Jesus Christ—he is the one who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water(E) and by blood.(F) And the Spirit is the one who testifies,(G) because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify:[c](H) 8 the Spirit,(I) the water, and the blood(J)—and these three are in agreement. 9 If we accept human testimony, God’s testimony(K) is greater, because it is God’s testimony that he has given about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony within himself. The one who does not believe God has made him a liar,(L) because he has not believed in the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life.(M) The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name(N) of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Effective Prayer
14 This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask(O) anything according to his will, he hears us.(P) 15 And if we know that he hears whatever we ask,(Q) we know that we have what we have asked of him.(R)
16 If anyone sees a fellow believer[d] committing a sin that doesn’t lead to death, he should ask, and God will give life to him—to those who commit sin that doesn’t lead to death. There is sin[e] that leads to death. I am not saying he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn’t lead to death.
Conclusion
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not sin, but the one who is born of God keeps him,[f](S) and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come(T) and has given us understanding so that we may know the true one.[g] We are in the true one—that is, in his Son, Jesus Christ.(U) He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
Footnotes
- 5:1 Or loves the one who has given birth
- 5:2 Other mss read keep
- 5:7–8 A few late Gk mss and some late Vg mss add testify in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three who bear witness on earth:
- 5:16 Lit sees his brother or sister
- 5:16 Or is a sin
- 5:18 Other mss read himself
- 5:20 Other mss read the true God
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