Category: Zechariah

The Lord Will Care for Judah

1 Ask theLordfor rain in the springtime;

it is theLordwho sends the thunderstorms.

He gives showers of rain to all people,

and plants of the field to everyone.

2 The idols speak deceitfully,

diviners see visions that lie;

they tell dreams that are false,

they give comfort in vain.

Therefore the people wander like sheep

oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,

and I will punish the leaders;

for theLordAlmighty will care

for his flock, the people of Judah,

and make them like a proud horse in battle.

4 From Judah will come the cornerstone,

from him the tent peg,

from him the battle bow,

from him every ruler.

5 Together theywill be like warriors in battle

trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.

They will fight because theLordis with them,

and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.

6 “I will strengthen Judah

and save the tribes of Joseph.

I will restore them

because I have compassion on them.

They will be as though

I had not rejected them,

for I am theLordtheir God

and I will answer them.

7 The Ephraimites will become like warriors,

and their hearts will be glad as with wine.

Their children will see it and be joyful;

their hearts will rejoice in theLord.

8 I will signal for them

and gather them in.

Surely I will redeem them;

they will be as numerous as before.

9 Though I scatter them among the peoples,

yet in distant lands they will remember me.

They and their children will survive,

and they will return.

10 I will bring them back from Egypt

and gather them from Assyria.

I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,

and there will not be room enough for them.

11 They will pass through the sea of trouble;

the surging sea will be subdued

and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.

Assyria’s pride will be brought down

and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.

12 I will strengthen them in theLord

and in his name they will live securely,”

declares theLord.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ZEC/10-ffa37f88f9eee7f093aa7b4a564e1eab.mp3?version_id=111—

1 Open your doors, Lebanon,

so that fire may devour your cedars!

2 Wail, you juniper, for the cedar has fallen;

the stately trees are ruined!

Wail, oaks of Bashan;

the dense forest has been cut down!

3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds;

their rich pastures are destroyed!

Listen to the roar of the lions;

the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!

Two Shepherds

4 This is what theLordmy God says: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter.

5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Praise theLord, I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them.

6 For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land,” declares theLord. “I will give everyone into the hands of their neighbors and their king. They will devastate the land, and I will not rescue anyone from their hands.”

7 So I shepherded the flock marked for slaughter, particularly the oppressed of the flock. Then I took two staffs and called one Favor and the other Union, and I shepherded the flock.

8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.

The flock detested me, and I grew weary of them

9 and said, “I will not be your shepherd. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish. Let those who are left eat one another’s flesh.”

10 Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.

11 It was revoked on that day, and so the oppressed of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of theLord.

12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.

13 And theLordsaid to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of theLord.

14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the family bond between Judah and Israel.

15 Then theLordsaid to me, “Take again the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd over the land who will not care for the lost, or seek the young, or heal the injured, or feed the healthy, but will eat the meat of the choice sheep, tearing off their hooves.

17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd,

who deserts the flock!

May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!

May his arm be completely withered,

his right eye totally blinded!”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ZEC/11-b646773e9109dc86cd70fef51b257c7a.mp3?version_id=111—

Jerusalem’s Enemies to Be Destroyed

1 A prophecy: The word of theLordconcerning Israel.

TheLord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares:

2 “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem.

3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.

4 On that day I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness,” declares theLord. “I will keep a watchful eye over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations.

5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because theLordAlmighty is their God.’

6 “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

7 “TheLordwill save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah.

8 On that day theLordwill shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of theLordgoing before them.

9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.

Mourning for the One They Pierced

10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spiritof grace and supplication. They will look onme, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be as great as the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives,

13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives,

14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ZEC/12-d855d35321c5c0e2eca81a6be3254d6a.mp3?version_id=111—

Cleansing From Sin

1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

2 “On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares theLordAlmighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.

3 And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in theLord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.

4 “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive.

5 Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’

6 If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your body?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered

7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,

against the man who is close to me!”

declares theLordAlmighty.

“Strike the shepherd,

and the sheep will be scattered,

and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

8 In the whole land,” declares theLord,

“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;

yet one-third will be left in it.

9 This third I will put into the fire;

I will refine them like silver

and test them like gold.

They will call on my name

and I will answer them;

I will say, ‘They are my people,’

and they will say, ‘TheLordis our God.’ ”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ZEC/13-ac2e7305c9d0ef89a17b8997848d5fe8.mp3?version_id=111—

The Lord Comes and Reigns

1 A day of theLordis coming, Jerusalem, when your possessions will be plundered and divided up within your very walls.

2 I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

3 Then theLordwill go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.

4 On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south.

5 You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquakein the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then theLordmy God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

6 On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness.

7 It will be a unique day—a day known only to theLord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light.

8 On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.

9 TheLordwill be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be oneLord, and his name the only name.

10 The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. But Jerusalem will be raised up high from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses, and will remain in its place.

11 It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure.

12 This is the plague with which theLordwill strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

13 On that day people will be stricken by theLordwith great panic. They will seize each other by the hand and attack one another.

14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing.

15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.

16 Then the survivors from all the nations that have attacked Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, theLordAlmighty, and to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

17 If any of the peoples of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, theLordAlmighty, they will have no rain.

18 If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they will have no rain. TheLordwill bring on them the plague he inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

19 This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles.

20 On that dayHoly to theLordwill be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in theLord’s house will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar.

21 Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to theLordAlmighty, and all who come to sacrifice will take some of the pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanitein the house of theLordAlmighty.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/3/32k/ZEC/14-4d8b06779638e801bbc9cf195659c59e.mp3?version_id=111—