9 The Coming of Zion's King
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! 9 Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! 9 See, your king[a] comes to you, 9 righteous and having salvation, 9 gentle and riding on a donkey, 9 on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim 10 and the war-horses from Jerusalem, 10 and the battle bow will be broken. 10 He will proclaim peace to the nations. 10 His rule will extend from sea to sea 10 and from the River[b] to the ends of the earth.[c]
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, 11 I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
12 Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; 12 even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
13 I will bend Judah as I bend my bow 13 and fill it with Ephraim. 13 I will rouse your sons, O Zion, 13 against your sons, O Greece, 13 and make you like a warrior's sword.
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14 The Lord Will Appear
14 Then the Lord will appear over them; 14 his arrow will flash like lightning. 14 The Sovereign Lord will sound the trumpet; 14 he will march in the storms of the south, 15 and the Lord Almighty will shield them. 15 They will destroy 15 and overcome with slingstones. 15 They will drink and roar as with wine; 15 they will be full like a bowl 15 used for sprinkling[d] the corners of the altar.
16 The Lord their God will save them on that day 16 as the flock of his people. 16 They will sparkle in his land 16 like jewels in a crown.
17 How attractive and beautiful they will be! 17 Grain will make the young men thrive, 17 and new wine the young women.
1 The Lord Will Care for Judah
1 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; 1 it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. 1 He gives showers of rain to men, 1 and plants of the field to everyone.
2 The idols speak deceit, 2 diviners see visions that lie; 2 they tell dreams that are false, 2 they give comfort in vain. 2 Therefore the people wander like sheep 2 oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
3 "My anger burns against the shepherds, 3 and I will punish the leaders; 3 for the Lord Almighty will care 3 for his flock, the house of Judah, 3 and make them like a proud horse in battle.
4 From Judah will come the cornerstone, 4 from him the tent peg, 4 from him the battle bow, 4 from him every ruler.
5 Together they[e] will be like mighty men 5 trampling the muddy streets in battle. 5 Because the Lord is with them, 5 they will fight and overthrow the horsemen.
6 "I will strengthen the house of Judah 6 and save the house of Joseph. 6 I will restore them 6 because I have compassion on them. 6 They will be as though 6 I had not rejected them, 6 for I am the Lord their God 6 and I will answer them.
7 The Ephraimites will become like mighty men, 7 and their hearts will be glad as with wine. 7 Their children will see it and be joyful; 7 their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.
8 I will signal for them 8 and gather them in. 8 Surely I will redeem them; 8 they will be as numerous as before.
9 Though I scatter them among the peoples, 9 yet in distant lands they will remember me. 9 They and their children will survive, 9 and they will return.
10 I will bring them back from Egypt 10 and gather them from Assyria. 10 I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon, 10 and there will not be room enough for them.
11 They will pass through the sea of trouble; 11 the surging sea will be subdued 11 and all the depths of the Nile will dry up. 11 Assyria's pride will be brought down 11 and Egypt's scepter will pass away.
12 I will strengthen them in the Lord 12 and in his name they will walk," 12 declares the Lord.
1 Open your doors, O Lebanon, 1 so that fire may devour your cedars!
2 Wail, O pine tree, for the cedar has fallen; 2 the stately trees are ruined! 2 Wail, oaks of Bashan; 2 the dense forest has been cut down!
3 Listen to the wail of the shepherds; 3 their rich pastures are destroyed! 3 Listen to the roar of the lions; 3 the lush thicket of the Jordan is ruined!
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4 Two Shepherds
4 This is what the Lord my God says: "Pasture the flock marked for slaughter. 5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, 'Praise the Lord, 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 the Lord. "I will hand everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will oppress the land, and I will not rescue them from their hands."
7 So I pastured 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 pastured the flock. 8 In one month I got rid of the three shepherds.
8 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 afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew it was the word of the Lord.
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 the Lord said to me, "Throw it to the potter"—the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter.
14 Then I broke my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 Then the Lord said 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 hoofs.
17 "Woe to the worthless shepherd, 17 who deserts the flock! 17 May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! 17 May his arm be completely withered, 17 his right eye totally blinded!"
1 Jerusalem's Enemies to Be Destroyed 1 An Oracle
1 This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, 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 the Lord. "I will keep a watchful eye over the house of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the nations. 5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, 'The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.'
6 "On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume right and left all the surrounding peoples, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.
7 "The Lord will 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 the Lord will 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 the Lord going before them. 9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem.
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10 Mourning for the One They Pierced
10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit[f] of grace and supplication. They will look on[g] me, 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 great, like 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.
1 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 the Lord Almighty. "I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. 3 And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother, to whom he was born, will say to him, 'You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord's name.' When he prophesies, his own parents will stab him.
4 "On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his prophetic vision. He will not put on a prophet's garment of hair in order to deceive. 5 He will say, 'I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.[h] ' 6 If someone asks him, 'What are these wounds on your body[i] ?' he will answer, 'The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.'
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7 The Shepherd Struck, the Sheep Scattered
7 "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, 7 against the man who is close to me!" 7 declares the Lord Almighty. 7 "Strike the shepherd, 7 and the sheep will be scattered, 7 and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land," declares the Lord, 8 "two-thirds will be struck down and perish; 8 yet one-third will be left in it.
9 This third I will bring into the fire; 9 I will refine them like silver 9 and test them like gold. 9 They will call on my name 9 and I will answer them; 9 I will say, 'They are my people,' 9 and they will say, 'The Lord is our God.' "
1 The Lord Comes and Reigns
1 A day of the Lord is coming when your plunder will be divided among you.
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 the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights in the 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 earthquake[j] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
