Zechariah 9-14
EasyEnglish Bible
God speaks against Israel's enemies
9 The Lord speaks against the land of Hadrach, and against the city of Damascus.
The Lord watches all men and all the groups of people in Israel.
2 The Lord speaks against the country called Hamath. (It is next to the country called Hadrach.) The people in Tyre and Sidon cities are very wise. But the Lord also speaks against them.
3 Tyre's people have built strong walls to keep enemies out.
They have swept up rich metals like dirt.
They have swept up gold like dirt in the streets.
4 The Lord will take away all the things that Tyre's people have.
And he will remove their ships from the sea.
Fire will burn every part of the city.
5 The people in Ashkelon city will see it and they will be afraid.
The people in Gaza city will see it and they will be afraid.
The things that the people in Ekron city hope for will not happen.
The king of Gaza will die
and there will be no people in Ashkelon any longer.
6 Foreign people will live in Ashdod city.
I will show the Philistines that they are not clever. They are not as clever as they believe.
7 I will take the blood from their mouths.
I will take the food from their teeth, because it is bad food.
Those that remain will still be my people.
They will become leaders in Judah.
Ekron will be like a part of Judah, as the Jebusites were.
8 Then I will keep my house safe against my enemies.
No army will ever again beat my people,
because I am watching them.
The king of Zion comes
9 Sing loudly, people in Zion.
Shout, people in Jerusalem.
Look! Your king comes to you.
He will save you because he does everything well.
But he is quiet and he is riding on a donkey.
He will ride on a young animal. Its mother is a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim,[a]
and the horses of war from Jerusalem.
The bows of war will be broken.
He will speak to all the countries and wars will finish.
He will rule from sea to sea. He will rule from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth.
11 But I made a promise to you. I made that promise true with blood. I will free your people that are in a prison, in deep dark holes without water.
12 All you people who hoped to see your own country again, return to Jerusalem.
I tell you this now: I will give back to you twice as much as you have lost.
13 I will use Judah and Israel to attack my enemies.
I will use you, men from Zion, to attack the men from Greece.
I will make you like the long metal knife of a soldier.
The Lord will appear
14 Then the Lord will appear above his people.
His arrows will be as fast as lightning in the sky.
The Lord God will make a loud sound with a trumpet.
He will march in a storm from the south to attack.
15 And the Lord Almighty will help his people.
They will throw great stones at their enemies.
When they go to war, they will shout loudly,
like men who have drunk too much wine.
They will be as full of joy as the priest's bowl is full of blood,
when he pours it on the altar.
16 On that day, the Lord will save them.
They are his people.
They will shine in his country
like beautiful stones that shine in a crown.
17 The people will be beautiful and good.
The young people will become strong
when they eat good bread.
The young women will become strong
when they drink new wine.
The Lord will watch over Judah
10 Ask the Lord for rain in spring.
It is the Lord who makes the clouds and the storms.
He gives the rain to men.
He gives the plants of the field to everyone.
2 People ask idols for help,
but the idols do not speak true words.
Some people explain what a dream means.
But they do not speak true words.
The help that they give is not good.
So the people move from place to place like sheep.
They are not safe. They have no leaders.
3 ‘I am angry with the leaders.
I will cause them to be sorry.
Judah's people are mine,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘I will watch over them.
I will make them as strong as horses that are ready for war.
4 From Judah's descendants will come a strong leader.
He is like a strong stone at the corner of a building.
He is like a strong peg in a wall.
He is like a bow that is ready to shoot arrows.
Every strong ruler will come from Judah's descendants.
5 Together they will be like brave soldiers
who march through the mud in the streets of their enemies.
The Lord is with them and they will fight their enemies.
They will pull down the soldiers from their horses.
6 I will make Judah's people strong,
and I will make Israel's people become free.
I will bring them back to me,
because I am sorry for them.
I am their God,
and I will answer them.
It will be as if I had never turned away from them.
7 Israel's people will become like strong men.
They will be as happy as men that drink wine.
Their children will see their happy fathers
and so the children will be happy.
They will sing to the Lord.
8 I will cause my people to come to me and I will bring them all together.
I will buy them and I will make them free people.
And there will be as many people as there were before.
9 I will send them to foreign countries among foreign people.
But, in these far countries, they will remember me.
They and their children will not die.
They will return to Jerusalem.
10 I will bring my people back from Egypt,
and I will bring them here together from Assyria.
I will bring them to Gilead and to Lebanon.
There will not be enough room for them all.
11 And he will come to the difficult sea.
But it will be no trouble to him.
He will stop the waves in the sea.
He will make the river Nile dry.[b]
Proud Assyria will have nothing to be proud about and
the power of Egypt's people will finish.’
12 ‘I will make my people strong.
They will obey me because they love my name.’
The sheep and the shepherd
11 Open your gates, Lebanon,
so that the fires can burn down your cedar trees.
2 Cry aloud, cypress tree, because the cedar tree has fallen.
Enemies have cut down the tall and beautiful trees.
Cry aloud, oak trees in Bashan,
because they have cut down the thick forest.
3 Listen to the shepherds!
They are crying because enemies have destroyed their fields.
Listen to the noise of the lions!
They are roaring because the trees beside the Jordan River
are no longer there.
The two shepherds[c]
4 This is what the Lord said to me, Zechariah. ‘My people are like sheep. There will be a time when men will buy them. And then they will kill them. But feed them until that time.
5 Those men who buy the sheep will kill them. Nobody will punish them. They will sell them. And they will say, “Thank you Lord, because I am a rich man.” Their own shepherds do not give the sheep any help.’
6 The Lord says, ‘The people in this country were my people, but they are not my people now. I will not go on being kind to them. I myself will give them to their enemies and to foreign kings. The foreign kings will do very bad things to the country, but I will not come to help.’
7 So I was a good shepherd to the sheep that men would soon kill. I took special care of the weakest sheep. Then I took two sticks. And I called one stick ‘Grace’ and I called the other stick ‘Together’. I fed the sheep.
8 In one month, I sent away three shepherds. They did not like me and I was not patient with them.
9 I said to the sheep, ‘I will not be your shepherd and you will die. The sheep that do not die will eat each other.’
10 I took ‘Grace’ which was my first stick. I broke it into two pieces. The Lord's promise to his people finished.
11 On the day that the Lord's promise finished, the weak sheep watched me. They knew that it was the Lord's message.
12 I said to them, ‘You may think that I should have some money for my work. If you do think that, pay me my money. If you do not want to pay me, keep it.’ So they paid me 30 silver coins.
13 The Lord said to me, ‘Throw the 30 silver coins to the man who makes pots in the house of the Lord.’ They thought that I was not worth very much! I took the 30 coins. And I threw them to the man who makes pots. He makes them for the house of the Lord.
14 Then I broke the second stick called ‘Together’. I made the kingdom of Judah separate from the kingdom of Israel. 15 Then the Lord said to me, Zechariah, ‘Take again the tools of a useless shepherd. 16 I have chosen a man to watch the sheep. He will not help the sheep that are dying. He will not look for the sheep that have gone away. He will not help the sick sheep or feed the strong sheep. He will eat the meat of the fat sheep. He will tear off their feet to get all the meat.
17 Bad things will happen to the bad shepherd who leaves his sheep.
His enemy's knife will cut his arm and his right eye.
His arm will become like a dry stick. And his right eye will no longer be able to see anything.’
The Lord will beat the enemies of Jerusalem
12 This is the Lord's message about Israel. The Lord made the skies and the whole wide earth. He makes men and women.
2 ‘I will frighten the enemies that live round Jerusalem. I will frighten them so much that they will run. They will run as fast as they can from Jerusalem and from Judah.
3 There will be a time when all the countries of the earth will be ready to attack Jerusalem. Then I will make Jerusalem like a heavy rock that nobody can move. All those who try to lift it will hurt themselves very badly.
4 On that day,’ says the Lord, ‘I will make every horse very afraid. I will make all the men that ride them crazy. I want to help Judah's people. And so, I will not let the horses of the enemy see any longer.
5 Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, “The Lord Almighty, their God, makes the people in Jerusalem strong. And they will help us.”
6 On that day, I will make the leaders of Judah like fire in a forest. I will make them like fire among wheat that the farmer has cut. They will kill all the people from round Jerusalem, but the people in Jerusalem will be safe.
7 The Lord will save the homes of the people from Judah first. So David's family and the people who live in Jerusalem will not be greater than the people from Judah.[d]
8 On that day, the Lord will save the people who live in Jerusalem. Even sick people will be as strong as King David was. The family of David will lead the people from Jerusalem like the angel of the Lord. God himself will go before them.
9 On that day, I will destroy all the countries that fight against Israel.
They will weep for the man that they killed
10 I will cause the family of David and the people in Jerusalem to think seriously about me. Then they will know that I am kind to them. And they will want to pray to me. They will look at me whom they pierced (made holes in). They will weep about him as those that weep after the death of their only son. They will cry aloud as if their only son was dead.
11 On that day, people will weep loudly in Jerusalem. It will be like when they were weeping about Hadad-Rimmon in the fields of Megiddo.[e]
12 All the people will weep. Each family will weep by itself. The family of King David will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves. The family of Nathan will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves.
13 The family of Levi will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves. The family of Shimei will weep by itself. And their wives will weep by themselves.
14 And all the families that have not died will weep by themselves. And their wives will weep by themselves.’
The Lord takes away the sin of the people
13 ‘On that day, water will start to pour from a fountain for King David's descendants and Jerusalem's people. It will make them clean from their sins and the dirty things that they have done.’
2 The Lord Almighty says, ‘On that day, I will remove the names of false gods from the country. Everyone will forget them. I will remove all the false prophets. And I will remove the bad spirit that is not holy.
3 And if anyone appears as a prophet again, his father and his mother will say to him, “You must die. You do not speak true words. The Lord has not spoken to you.” Then they will kill him.
4 On that day, every prophet will be ashamed that he was ever a prophet. He will not put on the clothes of a prophet that they make from hair. Then people will not know that he is a prophet.
5 He will say, “I am not a prophet. I am a farmer. From the time that I was a boy, I have worked on the land.”
6 If someone asks him, “Who cut your body?” he will answer, “My friends cut me when I was at their house.” ’
Kill the shepherd and the sheep will run away
7 ‘Attack my shepherd with a sharp knife.
Attack the man that is next to me,’
says the Lord Almighty.
‘Kill the shepherd and then the sheep will run away.
Then I will attack the young sheep.
8 In the whole country,’ says the Lord,
‘two thirds of the people will die.
But one third will still be living there.
9 I will bring these people through fire.
As men clean silver in the fire, so I will clean them.
As men test gold in the fire, so I will test them.
They will speak my name and I will answer them.
I will say, “They are my people.”
They will say, “The Lord is our God.” ’
The Lord comes
14 There will be a day when your enemies will take away everything. They will take away everything that is yours. They will each have some of your things.
2 I will bring soldiers from all countries to fight against Jerusalem. They will go into the city and they will rob the houses. They will have sex with the women. They will lead away half the people to other countries. They will let the other half stay in Jerusalem.
3 Then the Lord will go out. And he will fight against the people from those countries as in past years.
4 On that day, the Lord's feet will stand on the Mount of Olives. This mountain is east of Jerusalem. It will break in two from east to west and it will make a wide valley. Half of the mountain will move north and half of the mountain will move south.
5 In the time of Uzziah, king of Judah, you ran away when the earth moved. You will do this again. Then the Lord will come. And all those who are holy will come with him.[f]
6 On that day, it will not be light in some places and dark in other places.
7 It will be a day like no other day. There will be no night. When it is evening, there will still be light. Only the Lord himself will know that day.
8 On that day, water will come out from Jerusalem. Half of this water will go towards the sea in the east. Half of this water will go towards the sea in the west. This will go on during summer and winter.
9 The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day, there will be only one Lord and he will have only one name.
10 All the land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become flat. But Jerusalem will rise and it will be high in its place. The city will be from the Gate of Benjamin to the Corner Gate and to the High Building of Hananel. The place where the servants of the king make his wine will be in it too.
11 Jerusalem will be safe. People will live there. Nobody will destroy Jerusalem ever again.
12 The Lord will make the people sick that fought against Jerusalem. Their bodies will become bad as they stand on their feet. Their eyes will become bad and they will fall out. And their tongues will become bad in their mouths.
13 On that day, the Lord will make men so afraid that each man will attack the man next to him.
14 Judah also will go to Jerusalem and they will fight. They will take every good thing from all the countries. There will be a lot of expensive metals and many rich clothes.
15 The horses and all the other animals will be sick. And they will die as the soldiers died.
16 Some of the soldiers from the countries that attacked Jerusalem will not die. They will go to Jerusalem year after year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty. They will worship him at the Feast of Huts.[g]
17 All the people on the earth will have to go to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty. If any people on the earth do not go, they will have no rain.
18 If the people from Egypt do not go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, they will have no rain. And the Lord will make them sick. If the people from other countries will not go to Jerusalem, the Lord will make them sick. They will die.
19 This will happen to the people from Egypt. This will happen to the people from all the countries that do not go up to Jerusalem at that time.
20 On that day, men will write the words, ‘This is for the Lord’ on the bells of the horses. The pots that anyone uses to cook with in the house of the Lord will be special. They will be as special as the dishes in front of the altar.
21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be for the Lord Almighty. All the people who come to offer animals to the Lord will cook in those pots. On that day, nobody who sells things will come into the house of the Lord Almighty.
Footnotes
- 9:10 Ephraim was the name that people used for the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
- 10:11 Many years ago, Moses led Israel's people out of Egypt. The Lord made a dry path for them through the Red Sea. The Lord will make the river Nile dry as he did to the Red Sea then.
- 11:4 Zechariah will now talk about shepherds. But now he means the rulers who should help their people.
- 12:7 King David was the greatest king of Israel.
- 12:11 Some Bible students think that this means 2 Chronicles 35:20-25. Some students think that it means Judges 20:30—21:3.
- 14:5 We are not sure what ‘those who are holy’ means. Some students think that these are people. And some students think that they are angels.
- 14:16 During the Feast of Huts, the Jews remember that the Lord was kind to his people when they left Egypt many years ago. See Leviticus 23:34.
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