October 13

Zechariah 11:1 — 14:21

11 “Open up your doors, O Lebanon, that a fire may devour among your cedars. 2 Howl, O juniper tree, for the cedar has fallen; because the majestic ones themselves have been despoiled! Howl, YOU massive trees of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has come down! 3 Listen! The howling of shepherds, for their majesty has been despoiled. Listen! The roaring of maned young lions, for the proud [thickets] along the Jordan have been despoiled.

4 “This is what Jehovah my God has said, ‘Shepherd the flock [meant] for the killing, 5 the buyers of which proceed to kill [them] although they are not held guilty. And those who are selling them say: “May Jehovah be blessed, while I shall gain riches.” And their own shepherds do not show any compassion upon them.’

6 “‘For I shall show compassion no more upon the inhabitants of the land,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘So here I am causing mankind to find themselves, each one in the hand of his companion and in the hand of his king; and they will certainly crush to pieces the land, and I shall do no delivering out of their hand.’”

7 And I proceeded to shepherd the flock [meant] for the killing, in YOUR behalf, O afflicted ones of the flock. So I took for myself two staffs. The one I called Pleasantness, and the other I called Union, and I went shepherding the flock. 8 And I finally effaced three shepherds in one lunar month, as my soul gradually became impatient with them, and also their own soul felt a loathing toward me. 9 At length I said: “I shall not keep shepherding YOU. The one that is dying, let her die. And the one that is being effaced, let her be effaced. And as for the ones left remaining, let them devour, each one the flesh of her companion.” 10 So I took my staff Pleasantness and cut it to pieces, in order to break my covenant that I had concluded with all the peoples. 11 And it came to be broken in that day, and the afflicted ones of the flock who were watching me got to know in this way that it was the word of Jehovah.

12 Then I said to them: “If it is good in YOUR eyes, give [me] my wages; but if not, refrain.” And they proceeded to pay my wages, thirty pieces of silver.

13 At that, Jehovah said to me: “Throw it to the treasury—the majestic value with which I have been valued from their standpoint.” Accordingly I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw it into the treasury at the house of Jehovah.

14 Then I cut in pieces my second staff, the Union, in order to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And Jehovah went on to say to me: “Take yet for yourself the implements of a useless shepherd. 16 For here I am letting a shepherd rise up in the land. To the [sheep] being effaced he will give no attention. The young one he will not seek, and the broken [sheep] he will not heal. The one stationing herself he will not supply [with food], and the flesh of the fat one he will eat, and the hoofs of the [sheep] he will tear off. 17 Woe to my valueless shepherd, who is leaving the flock! A sword will be upon his arm and upon his right eye. His own arm will without fail dry up, and his own right eye will without fail grow dim.”

12 A pronouncement:

“The word of Jehovah concerning Israel,” is the utterance of Jehovah, the One who is stretching out [the] heavens and laying the foundation of [the] earth and forming the spirit of man inside him. 2 “Here I am making Jerusalem a bowl [causing] reeling to all the peoples round about; and also against Judah he will come to be in the siege, [even] against Jerusalem. 3 And it must occur in that day [that] I shall make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples. All those lifting it will without fail get severe scratches for themselves; and against her all the nations of the earth will certainly be gathered. 4 In that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “I shall strike every horse with bewilderment and its rider with madness; and upon the house of Judah I shall open my eyes, and every horse of the peoples I shall strike with loss of sight. 5 And the sheiks of Judah will have to say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to me by Jehovah of armies their God.’ 6 In that day I shall make the sheiks of Judah like a firepot among trees and like a fiery torch in a row of newly cut grain, and they must devour on the right [hand] and on the left all the peoples round about; and Jerusalem must yet be inhabited in her [own] place, in Jerusalem.

7 “And Jehovah will certainly save the tents of Judah first, to the end that the beauty of the house of David and the beauty of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not become too great over Judah. 8 In that day Jehovah will be a defense around the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the one that is stumbling among them must become in that day like David, and the house of David like God, like Jehovah’s angel before them. 9 And it must occur in that day [that] I shall seek to annihilate all the nations that are coming against Jerusalem.

10 “And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of favor and entreaties, and they will certainly look to the One whom they pierced through, and they will certainly wail over Him as in the wailing over an only [son]; and there will be a bitter lamentation over him as when there is bitter lamentation over the firstborn [son]. 11 In that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be great, like the wailing of Hadadrimmon in the valley plain of Megiddo. 12 And the land will certainly wail, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their women by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their women by themselves; 14 all the families that are left remaining, each family by itself, and their women by themselves.


13 “In that day there will come to be a well opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for an abhorrent thing.

2 “And it must occur in that day,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, “[that] I shall cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will no more be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I shall cause to pass out of the land. 3 And it must occur [that] in case a man should prophesy anymore, his father and his mother, the ones who caused his birth, must also say to him, ‘You will not live, because falsehood is what you have spoken in the name of Jehovah.’ And his father and his mother, the ones who caused his birth, must pierce him through because of his prophesying.

4 “And it must occur in that day [that] the prophets will become ashamed, each one of his vision when he prophesies; and they will not wear an official garment of hair for the purpose of deceiving. 5 And he will certainly say, ‘I am no prophet. I am a man cultivating [the] soil, because an earthling man himself acquired me from my youth on.’ 6 And one must say to him, ‘What are these wounds [on your person] between your hands?’ And he will have to say, ‘Those with which I was struck in the house of my intense lovers.’”

7 “O sword, awake against my shepherd, even against the able-bodied man who is my associate,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies. “Strike the shepherd, and let those of the flock be scattered; and I shall certainly turn my hand back upon those who are insignificant.”

8 “And it must occur in all the land,” is the utterance of Jehovah, “[that] two parts in it are what will be cut off [and] expire; and as for the third [part], it will be left remaining in it. 9 And I shall certainly bring the third [part] through the fire; and I shall actually refine them as in the refining of silver, and examine them as in the examining of gold. It, for its part, will call upon my name, and I, for my part, will answer it. I will say, ‘It is my people,’ and it, in its turn, will say, ‘Jehovah is my God.’”

14 “Look! There is a day coming, belonging to Jehovah, and the spoil of you will certainly be apportioned out in the midst of you. 2 And I shall certainly gather all the nations against Jerusalem for the war; and the city will actually be captured and the houses be pillaged, and the women themselves will be raped. And half of the city must go forth into the exile; but as for the remaining ones of the people, they will not be cut off from the city.

3 “And Jehovah will certainly go forth and war against those nations as in the day of his warring, in the day of fight. 4 And his feet will actually stand in that day upon the mountain of the olive trees, which is in front of Jerusalem, on the east; and the mountain of the olive trees must be split at its middle, from the sunrising and to the west. There will be a very great valley; and half of the mountain will actually be moved to the north, and half of it to the south. 5 And YOU people will certainly flee to the valley of my mountains; because the valley of [the] mountains will reach all the way to Azel. And YOU will have to flee, just as YOU fled because of the [earth]quake in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah. And Jehovah my God will certainly come, all the holy ones being with him.

6 “And it must occur in that day [that] there will prove to be no precious light—things will be congealed. 7 And it must become one day that is known as belonging to Jehovah. It will not be day, neither will it be night; and it must occur [that] at evening time it will become light. 8 And it must occur in that day [that] living waters will go forth from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. In summer and in winter it will occur. 9 And Jehovah must become king over all the earth. In that day Jehovah will prove to be one, and his name one.

10 “The whole land will be changed like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon to the south of Jerusalem; and she must rise and become inhabited in her place, from the Gate of Benjamin all the way to the place of the First Gate, all the way to the Corner Gate, and [from] the Tower of Hananel all the way to the press vats of the king. 11 And people will certainly inhabit her; and there will occur no more any banning [to destruction], and Jerusalem must be inhabited in security.

12 “And this is what will prove to be the scourge with which Jehovah will scourge all the peoples that will actually do military service against Jerusalem: There will be a rotting away of one’s flesh, while one is standing upon one’s feet; and one’s very eyes will rot away in their sockets, and one’s very tongue will rot away in one’s mouth.

13 “And it must occur in that day [that] confusion from Jehovah will become widespread among them; and they will actually grab hold, each one of the hand of his companion, and his hand will actually come up against the hand of his companion. 14 And Judah itself also will be warring at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the nations round about will certainly be gathered, gold and silver and garments in excessive abundance.

15 “And this is how the scourge of the horse, the mule, the camel, and the male ass, and every sort of domestic animal that happens to be in those camps, will prove to be, like this scourge.

16 “And it must occur [that], as regards everyone who is left remaining out of all the nations that are coming against Jerusalem, they must also go up from year to year to bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies, and to celebrate the festival of the booths. 17 And it must occur that, as regards anyone that does not come up out of the families of the earth to Jerusalem to bow down to the King, Jehovah of armies, even upon them no pouring rain will occur. 18 And if the family of Egypt itself does not come up and does not actually enter, upon them also there shall be none. The scourge will occur with which Jehovah scourges the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival of the booths. 19 This itself will prove to be the [punishment for the] sin of Egypt and the sin of all the nations that do not come up to celebrate the festival of the booths.

20 “In that day there will prove to be upon the bells of the horse ‘Holiness belongs to Jehovah!’ And the widemouthed cooking pots in the house of Jehovah must become like the bowls before the altar. 21 And every widemouthed cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah must become something holy belonging to Jehovah of armies, and all those who are sacrificing must come in and take from them and must do boiling in them. And there will no more prove to be a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of armies in that day.”