Zechariah 11-14

GOD’S WORD Translation

Zechariah Is Told to Take Care of the Sheep

⁴ This is what the Lord my God says: Take care of the sheep that are about to be slaughtered. ⁵ Those who buy them will kill them and go unpunished. Those who sell them will say, “Praise the Lord! I’ve become rich!” Even their own shepherds will have no pity on them.

⁶ The Lord declares, “I will no longer have pity on those who live in the land. I am going to hand the people over to their neighbors and their king, who will crush the land. And I won’t rescue any of them from their power.”

⁷ So I became the shepherd of the sheep that were to be slaughtered and also of the oppressed sheep. I took two shepherd staffs and named one Favor and the other Unity. And I took care of the sheep. ⁸ I got rid of three shepherds in one month. I became impatient with the sheep, and they also became disgusted with me. ⁹ So I said, “I won’t be your shepherd. Let those that are dying die. Let those that are missing stay missing. And let those that are left devour each other.”

¹⁰ Then I took my staff called Favor and broke it in pieces, to break the promise ^[a] that I had made to all the nations. ¹¹ So it was broken on that day, and the oppressed among the sheep who were watching me realized that it was the Lord’s word.

¹² Then I said to them, “If it’s alright with you, pay me my wages. But if it’s not, don’t.” And they paid me my wages—30 pieces of silver.

¹³ The Lord told me, “Give it to the potter.” So I took the 30 pieces of silver. Such a magnificent price was set by them! I gave the pieces of silver to the potter at the house of the Lord.

¹⁴ Then I broke my second staff, called Unity, in pieces, to break off the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵ Then the Lord said to me, “Use the equipment of a foolish shepherd again. ¹⁶ I’m about to place a shepherd in the land. He will not take care of those that are dying. He will not search for the young. He will not heal those that have broken their legs or support those that can still stand. But he will eat the meat of the fat animals and tear off their hoofs.

The Lord Will Save Jerusalem

12 This is the prophetic revelation, the Lord’s word about Israel. The Lord—who spread out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit in a person—says, ² “I’m going to make Jerusalem like a cup ⌞of wine⌟ that makes all the surrounding people stagger. They will attack Judah along with Jerusalem. ³ On that day I will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift. All who try to lift it will be severely injured. All the nations in the world will gather ⌞to fight⌟ against Jerusalem.”

⁴ The Lord declares, “On that day I will strike every horse with panic and every rider with madness. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will strike all the horses of the nations blind. ⁵ Then the leaders of Judah will think to themselves, ‘The people who live in Jerusalem are strong because of the Lord of Armies, their God.’

⁶ “On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire on a pile of wood and like a burning torch among freshly cut straw. They will burn up all the surrounding nations to the right and to the left. But the people of Jerusalem will remain safe in Jerusalem.

⁷ “The Lord will save Judah’s tents first so that the honor of David’s family and the honor of those who live in Jerusalem will not be greater than the honor of Judah. ⁸ On that day the Lord will defend those who live in Jerusalem so that even those who stumble will be like David, and David’s family will be like God, like the Messenger of the Lord ahead of them.

⁹ “On that day I will seek to destroy all the nations who attack Jerusalem.

The People of Jerusalem Will Look at the One They Stabbed

¹⁰ “I will pour out the Spirit of blessing and mercy on David’s family and on those who live in Jerusalem. They will look at me, whom they have stabbed. Then they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will cry bitterly for him as one cries for a firstborn son. ¹¹ On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as intense as the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, each family by itself: the family of David by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself, and the wives by themselves; ¹³ the family of Levi by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and the wives by themselves. ¹⁴ All the families that are left ⌞will mourn⌟, each by itself, and the wives by themselves.”

13 ⌞The Lord declares,⌟ “On that day a fountain will be opened for David’s family and for those who live in Jerusalem to wash away ⌞their⌟ sin and stain.

False Prophets Will Be Judged

² “On that day,” declares the Lord of Armies, “I will wipe away the names of the idols from the land. They will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the ⌞false⌟ prophets and the unclean ^[b] spirit from the land.

³ “If a man still prophesies, his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will say, ‘You don’t deserve to live because you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will stab him when he prophesies.

⁴ “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He won’t deceive people by dressing ⌞like a prophet⌟ in a coat made of hair. ⁵ He will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I’m a farmer. I’ve owned this land since I was a child.’

⁶ “When someone asks him, ‘What are these scars on your chest?’ he will answer, ‘I was hurt at my friend’s house.’

The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered

⁸ The Lord declares,

The Lord Will Fight the Nations

14 A day is going to come for the Lord when the loot you have taken will be divided among you. ² I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle. The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people in the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people won’t be taken from the city.

³ Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as he does when he fights a battle. ⁴ On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives will be split in two, forming a very large valley from east to west. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and the other half will move toward the south. ⁵ Then you will flee to the valley of my mountains, because this valley between the mountains will go as far as Azel. You will flee as you did from the earthquake at the time of King Uzziah of Judah. The Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones will be with him.

⁶ On that day there will be neither heat nor freezing cold. ⁷ There will be one day—a day known to the Lord—with no difference between day and night. It will be light even in the evening.

Living Water from Jerusalem

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

⁹ The Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be the only Lord and his name the only name.

¹⁰ The whole earth will become like the plains from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will rise and remain on its site, from Benjamin Gate to the place of First Gate, Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. ¹¹ People will live there, and it will never be threatened with destruction. Jerusalem will live securely.

¹² This will be the plague the Lord will use to strike all the people from the nations that have gone to war against Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot while they are standing on their feet. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

¹³ On that day a large-scale panic from the Lord will spread among them. One person will grab the hand of another, and one will attack the other. ¹⁴ Judah will also fight in Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected, a very large amount of gold, silver, and clothes. ¹⁵ A similar plague will also affect horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all other animals in those camps.

¹⁶ Everyone who is left from all the nations that attacked Jerusalem will come every year to worship the king, the Lord of Armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths. ¹⁷ If any of the families on the earth won’t go to Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of Armies, then rain won’t fall on them. ¹⁸ If the people of Egypt won’t go or enter Jerusalem, then ⌞rain won’t fall⌟ on them. The plague the Lord uses to strike the nations will affect those who won’t come to celebrate the Festival of Booths. ¹⁹ This will be ⌞the punishment⌟ for Egypt’s sin and for the sin of all the nations that won’t go to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

²⁰ On that day “Holy to the Lord” will be written on the bells of the horses. And the cooking pots in the house of the Lord will be like the bowls in front of the altar. ²¹ Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Armies. All who come to sacrifice will take some of them and cook in them. On that day there will no longer be any Canaanite ^[c] in the house of the Lord of Armies.