Zechariah 11-14

Common English Bible

11 Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars.
² Scream, cypress, for the cedar has fallen;
            those majestic ones have been devastated.
Scream, oaks of Bashan, for the deep forest has fallen.
³ The sound of screaming appears among the shepherds
            because their majesty has been devastated.
        The sound of roaring can be heard among the young lions
            because the pride of the Jordan has been devastated.

¹⁰ Then I took the staff Delight,
        and I chopped it up in order to break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
¹¹         It was broken on that day.
            As a result, the afflicted^[b] of the flock knew that it was the Lord’s word.
¹² And I said to them,
        “If it appears good to you, give me my wages;
        but if not, then stop.”
        So they weighed out my wages, thirty shekels of silver.
¹³ The Lord said to me,
        “Put it in the treasury.^[c]
        They value me at too magnificent a price.”
So I took the thirty shekels^[d] of silver
        and put them in the treasury of the Lord’s house.

¹⁴ Then I chopped up my second staff Harmony,
        to break the alliance between Judah and Israel.
¹⁵ Then the Lord said to me,
    “Take for yourself again the equipment of a foolish shepherd,
¹⁶         because I am about to appoint a shepherd in the land.
            He won’t tend to those who have been removed.
            He won’t seek the young or heal the broken.
            He won’t sustain the one standing.
            Instead, he will devour the flesh of the fat ones, even tearing off their hooves.
¹⁷         Doom, foolish shepherd who forsakes the flock.
            A sword will strike^[e] his arm and his right eye.
            His arm will wither completely;
                his right eye will become blind.”

³ On that day I will make Jerusalem into a heavy stone^[f] for all the peoples.
        All who carry it will hurt themselves;
        nevertheless, the nations of the earth will conspire against it.

⁴ On that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with confusion
        and its rider with madness.
I will keep my eyes open for the house of Judah;
        I will strike blind every horse of the peoples.
⁵ The chieftains of Judah will say to themselves, We are strong;
        the inhabitants of Jerusalem will say,
            The Lord their God of heavenly forces is strong.^[g]

⁶ On that day I will place the chieftains of Judah like a pot on a wood fire and like a burning torch among the bundles of grain.
        They will devour all the surrounding nations to the right and the left.
        Jerusalem will dwell again in its place, in Jerusalem.
⁷ The Lord will first deliver the tents of Judah so that the splendor of David’s house
        and the splendor of Jerusalem’s inhabitants won’t overshadow Judah.

⁸ On that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Anyone among them who stumbles on that day will become like David,
        and David’s house will become like God,
            like the Lord’s messenger in front of them.

⁹ On that day I intend to destroy all the nations who come against Jerusalem,
¹⁰     but I will pour out a spirit of grace and mercy on David’s house
        and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
They will look to me concerning the one whom they pierced;
        they will mourn over him like the mourning for an only child.
        They will mourn bitterly over him like the bitter mourning over the death of^[h] an oldest child.

¹¹ On that day, the mourning in Jerusalem
    will be as great as the mourning of Hadad-Rimmon in the Megiddo Valley.
¹² The land will mourn, each of the clans by itself:
    the clan of David’s house by themselves, and their women by themselves;
            the clan of Nathan’s house by themselves, and their women by themselves;
¹³             the clan of Levi’s house by themselves, and their women by themselves;
            and the Shimeites’ clan by themselves, and their women by themselves;
¹⁴             and all the remaining clans, each clan by itself, and their women by themselves.

13 On that day, a fountain will open
        to cleanse^[i] the sin and impurity of David’s house and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

² On that day, says the Lord of heavenly forces,
        I will eliminate the names of the idols from the land;
            they will no longer be remembered.
Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the sinful spirit from the land.
³ If anyone again prophesies,
        then that person’s birth father and mother will say,
    “You won’t live, for you have told a lie in the name of the Lord.”
    That person’s own birth father and mother will stab him when he prophesies.

⁴ On that day each of the prophets will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies
        and won’t put on a shaggy coat in order to deceive.
⁵ Each will say, “I’m not a prophet.
        I’m a man who works the ground, for the soil has been my occupation since I was young.”
⁶ Someone will say to him,
    “What are these wounds between your hands?”
        And he will say, “These happened when I was hit in my friends’ home.”

⁷ Sword, arise against my shepherd,
        against the man responsible for^[j] my community, says the Lord of heavenly forces!
Strike the shepherd in order to scatter the flock!
        I will turn my hand against the little ones.
⁸ Throughout all the land, says the Lord,
        two-thirds will be cut off and die;
            but one-third will be left in it.
⁹ I will put the third part into the fire.
        I will refine them like one refines silver;
            I will test them like one tests gold.
They will call on my name, and I will respond to them.
        I will say, “They are my people.”
            And they will say, “The Lord is our God.”