Zechariah 8-14
Complete Jewish Bible
8 A message came from Adonai-Tzva’ot: 2 “Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘I am extremely jealous on Tziyon’s behalf, and I am jealous for her with great fury.’ 3 Adonai says, ‘I am returning to Tziyon, and I will live in Yerushalayim. Then Yerushalayim will be called Truth City, Adonai-Tzva’ot’s Mountain, the Mountain of the Holy One. 4 Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘Old men and old women will once again sit in the open places of Yerushalayim, each one with his cane in his hand, because of their great age. 5 The city’s open places will also be full of boys and girls playing there.’ 6 Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘This may seem amazing to the survivors in those days, but must it also seem amazing to me?’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot. 7 Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘I will save my people from lands east and west; 8 I will bring them back, and they will live in Yerushalayim. They will be my people; and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.’
9 “Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘Take courage, you who are hearing only now, in these days, these words spoken by the prophets when the foundation was being laid for rebuilding the temple, the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot. 10 For prior to that time, there were wages neither for people nor for animals; moreover, it was unsafe for anyone to go out or come in, because of the enemy; for I set all people each against the other. 11 But from now on, I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did before,’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot. 12 ‘Now they will sow in peace, the vine will give its fruit, the ground will produce its yield, the sky will give its dew, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. 13 House of Y’hudah and house of Isra’el, just as you were formerly a curse among the nations, so now I will save you; and you will be a blessing. Don’t be afraid, but take courage!’
14 “For Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘Just as I resolved to do you harm when your forefathers provoked me,’ Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘and I did not relent; 15 so now, I resolve to do good to Yerushalayim and to the house of Y’hudah. Don’t be afraid! 16 These are the things you are to do: speak the truth to each other; in your courts, administer justice that is true and conducive to peace; 17 don’t plot harm against each other; and don’t love perjury; for all these are things I hate,’ says Adonai.”
18 This word of Adonai-Tzva’ot came to me: 19 “Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘The fast days of the fourth, fifth, seventh and tenth months are to become times of joy, gladness and cheer for the house of Y’hudah. Therefore, love truth and peace.’
20 “Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘In the future, peoples and inhabitants of many cities will come; 21 the inhabitants of one city will travel to another and say, “We must go to ask Adonai’s favor and consult Adonai-Tzva’ot. I’ll go too.” 22 Yes, many peoples and powerful nations will come to consult Adonai-Tzva’ot in Yerushalayim and to ask Adonai’s favor.’ 23 Adonai-Tzva’ot says, ‘When that time comes, ten men will take hold — speaking all the languages of the nations — will grab hold of the cloak of a Jew and say, “We want to go with you, because we have heard that God is with you.”’”
9 A prophecy, the word of Adonai:
In the land of Hadrakh and Dammesek
is where [God] comes to rest,
for the eyes of humankind are directed toward Adonai,
as are those of all the tribes of Isra’el,
2 also Hamat at its border,
Tzor and Tzidon, for she is very wise.
3 Tzor built herself a fortified tower,
heaping up silver as if it were dust
and fine gold as if it were mud in the streets.
4 But Adonai will dispossess her
and break her power at sea,
while the city itself
will be destroyed by fire.
5 On seeing this, Ashkelon will be terrified;
‘Azah too will writhe in pain;
likewise ‘Ekron, as her hopes are dashed.
“The king will vanish from ‘Azah,
Ashkelon will be without people,
6 and a mixed people will live in Ashdod,
as I destroy the pride of the P’lishtim.
7 I will end their eating meat with its blood still in it,
snatching the disgusting things from between their teeth.”
But the surviving remnant will belong to our God;
it will be like a clan in Y’hudah;
and ‘Ekron will be like a Y’vusi.
8 “Then I will guard my house against armies,
so that none will march through or return.
No oppressor will ever again overrun them,
for now I am watching with my own eyes.
9 Rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Tziyon!
Shout out loud, daughter of Yerushalayim!
Look! Your king is coming to you.
He is righteous, and he is victorious.
Yet he is humble — he’s riding on a donkey,
yes, on a lowly donkey’s colt.
10 I will banish chariots from Efrayim
and war-horses from Yerushalayim.”
The warrior’s bow will be banished,
and he will proclaim peace to the nations.
He will rule from sea to sea,
and from the [Euphrates] River to the ends of the earth.
11 “Also you, by the blood of your covenant,
I release your prisoners from [the dungeon,]
the cistern that has no water in it.
12 Return to the stronghold,
you prisoners with hope!
This day I declare to you
that I will grant you double reparation.
13 For I have bent Y’hudah as my bow
and made Efrayim its arrow.
I will rouse your sons, Tziyon,
and make you like a warrior’s sword
against your sons, Greece.”
14 Adonai will appear over them,
and his arrow will flash like lightning.
Adonai Elohim will blow the shofar
and go out in the whirlwinds of the south.
15 Adonai-Tzva’ot will defend them;
they will devour and trample the sling-stones.
They will drink and roar
as if they had drunk wine;
they will be filled, like basins
and like the corners of the altar.
16 On that day Adonai their God
will save them as the flock of his people;
for they will be like gems in a crown,
sparkling over his countryside.
17 What wealth is theirs, what beauty!
Grain will make the young men thrive,
and new wine the young women.
10 Ask Adonai for rain in the spring,
Adonai who makes the rain clouds;
and he will give them showers of rain,
grass in the field to each one.
2 For the household gods talk nonsense,
the diviners have seen a lie;
their dreams convey delusions,
and the comfort they offer is in vain.
Therefore they go their way like sheep
in distress from lack of a shepherd.
3 “My anger burns against the shepherds,
and I will vent it on the leaders of the flock.”
For Adonai-Tzva’ot will care for his flock,
the people of Y’hudah;
he will make them like his royal war-horse.
4 From them come cornerstone and tent peg,
from them the bow for battle,
from them all the rulers together.
5 They will be like warriors
trampling the mud of the streets in battle.
They will fight, because Adonai is with them;
they will rout even those on horseback.
6 “I will strengthen the house of Y’hudah
and save the house of Yosef.
I will bring them back in my compassion for them;
they will be as if I hadn’t driven them out;
for I am Adonai their God,
and I will answer them.
7 Efrayim’s men will be like warriors;
their hearts will be cheered as if from wine.
Their children will see it and rejoice,
their hearts will be glad in Adonai.
8 “I will whistle for them and gather them,
because I have redeemed them;
they will be as numerous
as they were before;
9 and I will sow them among the peoples.
In distant lands they will remember me;
they will rear their children and then return.
10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt
and gather them out of Ashur.
I will bring them into Gil‘ad and the L’vanon,
until there is no more room for them.
11 “Trouble will pass over the sea
and stir up waves in the sea;
all the depths of the Nile will be dried up,
the pride of Ashur will be brought down,
and the scepter of Egypt will leave.
12 But I will strengthen [Isra’el] in Adonai;
they will travel here and there in his name,”
says Adonai.
11 Open your doors, L’vanon,
so that fire can consume your cedars.
2 Wail, cypress, because the cedar has fallen,
those splendid trees are ruined.
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
because the thick forest has been felled.
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds,
because their glory is spoiled.
Listen to the roaring of young lions,
because the Yarden’s thickets are plundered.
4 Adonai my God says this: “Shepherd the flock for slaughter. 5 Their buyers kill them and go unpunished; while those who sell them say, ‘Barukh Adonai! Now I’m rich!’ Even their own shepherds show them no pity. 6 I will no longer show pity to the inhabitants of the land,” says Adonai. “No, I will hand every one of them over to the power of a neighbor and to the power of his king; they will crush the land; and I won’t rescue them from their power.”
7 So I shepherded the flock for slaughter, truly the most miserable of the sheep; and I took two staffs for myself. I called the one No‘am [pleasantness], the other I called Hovalim [bound together], and I shepherded the flock. 8 “In a single month I got rid of three shepherds, because I grew impatient with them; and besides, they detested me. 9 I said, ‘I’m not going to shepherd you. Whichever one is going to die, let it die; whichever is going to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and the rest can all devour each other.’”
10 I took my staff No‘am and snapped it in two, “in order to break my covenant, which I made with all the peoples.” 11 On that day when it was broken, the most miserable of the sheep who paid attention to me knew that this was indeed a message from Adonai. 12 I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; if not, don’t.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty silver [shekels, that is, twelve ounces]. 13 Concerning that “princely sum” at which they valued me, Adonai said, “Throw it into the treasury!” So I took the thirty silver [shekels] and threw them into the treasury in the house of Adonai.
14 Then I snapped in two my other staff Hovalim [bound together], in order to break up the brotherhood between Y’hudah and Isra’el. 15 Adonai said to me, “This time, take the equipment of a worthless shepherd. 16 For I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who won’t bother about the ones who have been destroyed, won’t seek out the young, won’t heal the broken and won’t feed those standing still; on the contrary, he will eat the meat of the fat ones and break their hoofs in pieces.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd
who abandons the sheep!
May a sword strike his arm
and his right eye.
May his arm be completely withered
and his right eye totally blinded.”
12 A prophecy, the word of Adonai concerning Isra’el — here is the message from Adonai, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit inside human beings:
2 “I will make Yerushalayim a cup
that will stagger the surrounding peoples.
Even Y’hudah will be caught up
in the siege against Yerushalayim.
3 When that day comes, I will make Yerushalayim
a heavy stone for all the peoples.
All who try to lift it will hurt themselves,
and all the earth’s nations will be massed against her.
4 When that day comes,” says Adonai,
“I will strike all the horses with panic
and their riders with madness;
I will keep watch over Y’hudah,
but I will strike blind all the horses of the peoples.
5 The leaders of Y’hudah will say to themselves,
‘Those living in Yerushalayim are my strength
through Adonai-Tzva’ot their God.’
6 When that day comes,
I will make the leaders of Y’hudah
like a blazing fire pan in a pile of wood,
like a fiery torch among sheaves of grain;
they will devour all the surrounding peoples,
on the right and on the left.
Yerushalayim will be inhabited
in her own place, Yerushalayim.
7 Adonai will save the tents of Y’hudah first,
so that the glory of the house of David
and the glory of those living in Yerushalayim
will not appear greater than that of Y’hudah.
8 When that day comes, Adonai will defend
those living in Yerushalayim.
On that day, even someone who stumbles
will be like David;
and the house of David will be like God,
like the angel of Adonai before them.
9 “When that day comes, I will seek to destroy
all nations attacking Yerushalayim;
10 and I will pour out on the house of David
and on those living in Yerushalayim
a spirit of grace and prayer;
and they will look to me, whom they pierced.”
They will mourn for him
as one mourns for an only son;
they will be in bitterness on his behalf
like the bitterness for a firstborn son.
11 When that day comes, there will be
great mourning in Yerushalayim,
mourning like that for Hadad-Rimmon
in the Megiddo Valley.
12 Then the land will mourn,
each family by itself —
the family of the house of David by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
the family of the house of Natan by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
13 the family of the house of Levi by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
the family of the Shim‘i by itself,
and their wives by themselves;
14 all the remaining families, each by itself,
and their wives by themselves.
13 When that day comes, a spring will be opened up for the house of David and the people living in Yerushalayim to cleanse them from sin and impurity. 2 “When that day comes,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “I will cut off the very names of the idols from the land, so that no one even remembers them any more. I will also expel the [false] prophets and the spirit of uncleanness from the land; 3 so that if anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother who brought him into the world will tell him, ‘You cannot continue to live, because you are speaking lies in the name of Adonai’; then his own father and mother who brought him into the world will stab him to death. 4 When that day comes, each one of the prophets will be shamed by his vision when he prophesies. He will stop wearing a hair cloak to deceive people; 5 and instead, he will say, ‘I’m no prophet, I just work the soil; since my youth I’ve only wanted to be an ordinary man.’ 6 If someone asks him, ‘Then what are these gashes between your shoulders?’ he will answer, ‘I got hurt at my friends’ house.’
7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the young ones.
8 In time, throughout that land,” says Adonai,
“two-thirds of those in it will be destroyed —
they will die, but one-third will remain.
9 That third part I will bring through the fire;
I will refine them as silver is refined,
I will test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is my people’
and they will say, ‘Adonai is my God.’”
14 Look, a day is coming for Adonai
when your plunder, [Yerushalayim], will be divided
right there within you.
2 “For I will gather all the nations
against Yerushalayim for war.
The city will be taken,
the houses will be rifled,
the women will be raped,
and half the city will go into exile;
but the rest of the people
will not be cut off from the city.”
3 Then Adonai will go out
and fight against those nations,
fighting as on a day of battle.
4 On that day his feet will stand
on the Mount of Olives,
which lies to the east of Yerushalayim;
and the Mount of Olives will be split in half
from east to west, to make a huge valley.
Half of the mountain will move toward the north,
and half of it toward the south.
5 You will flee to the valley in the mountains,
for the valley in the mountains will reach to Atzel.
You will flee, just as you fled before the earthquake
in the days of ‘Uziyah king of Y’hudah.
Then Adonai my God will come
to you with all the holy ones.
6 On that day, there will be
neither bright light nor thick darkness;
7 and one day, known to Adonai,
will be neither day nor night,
although by evening there will be light.
8 On that day, fresh water will flow
out from Yerushalayim,
half toward the eastern sea
and half toward the western sea,
both summer and winter.
9 Then Adonai will be king
over the whole world.
On that day Adonai will be the only one,
and his name will be the only name.
10 All the land will be made like the ‘Aravah, from Geva to Rimmon in the Negev. Yerushalayim will be raised up and inhabited where she is, from Binyamin’s Gate to the place where the earlier gate stood, and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hanan’el to the king’s winepresses. 11 People will live there, the curse will be broken, and Yerushalayim will live in safety.
12 Adonai will strike all the peoples who made war against Yerushalayim with a plague in which their flesh rots away while they are standing on their feet, their eyes rot away in their sockets, and their tongues rot away in their mouths. 13 When that day comes, there will be among them great panic, sent by Adonai, so that everyone lays hands on his neighbor, who in turn attacks him. 14 Y’hudah too will fight against Yerushalayim; and the wealth of all the nations will be assembled — gold, silver and clothing in great abundance. 15 A plague like this plague will also affect the horses, mules, camels, donkeys and all the other animals in those camps.
16 Finally, everyone remaining from all the nations that came to attack Yerushalayim will go up every year to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, and to keep the festival of Sukkot. 17 If any of the families of the earth does not go up to Yerushalayim to worship the king, Adonai-Tzva’ot, no rain will fall on them. 18 If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up, if they refuse to come, they will have no [annual] overflow [from the Nile]; moreover, there will be the plague with which Adonai will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot. 19 This will be Egypt’s punishment and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the festival of Sukkot.
20 When that day comes, this will be written on the bells worn by the horses: “Consecrated to Adonai”; and the cooking pots in the house of Adonai will be [as holy] as the sprinkling bowls before the altar. 21 Yes, every cooking pot in Yerushalayim and Y’hudah will be consecrated to Adonai-Tzva’ot. Everyone who offers sacrifices will come, take them and use them to stew the meat. When that day comes, there will no longer be merchants in the house of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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