The Lord Will Give Salvation
1 iThe oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, jwho stretched out the heavens and kfounded the earth and jformed the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem la cup of staggering to mall the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem nwill also be against Judah. 3 oOn that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. pAll who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And mall the nations of the earth will gather against it. 4 oOn that day, declares the Lord, qI will strike every horse rwith panic, and its rider rwith madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples rwith blindness. 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.’
6 o“On that day I will make the clans of Judah slike a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And tthey shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while uJerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
7 “And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 oOn that day vthe Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that wthe feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, xlike the angel of the Lord, going before them. 9 oAnd on that day yI will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Him Whom They Have Pierced
10 “And zI will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and zpleas for mercy, so that, awhen they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, bthey shall mourn for him, cas one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. 11 oOn that day dthe mourning in Jerusalem will be as great eas the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. 12 The land shall mourn, feach family1 by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of gNathan 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 hthe Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
1 i“On that day there shall be ja fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
Idolatry Cut Off
2 “And ion that day, declares the Lord of hosts, kI will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that lthey shall be remembered no more. And also mI will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness. 3 And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, n‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.
4 “On that day oevery prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive, 5 but he will say, p‘I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.’2 6 And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’3 he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’
The Shepherd Struck
7 “Awake, O sword, against qmy shepherd,
against the man who stands next to me,”
declares the Lord of hosts.
r“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8 In the whole land, declares the Lord,
two thirds shall be cut off and perish,
sand one third shall be left alive.
9 And tI will put this third into the fire,
and refine them as one refines silver,
and test them as gold is tested.
uThey will call upon my name,
and vI will answer them.
wI will say, ‘They are my people’;
and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
The Coming Day of the Lord
1 Behold, xa day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For yI will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and zthe city shall be taken aand the houses plundered band the women raped. cHalf of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 dThen the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 eOn that day his feet shall stand fon gthe Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and gthe Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by ha very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from ithe earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.4
6 eOn that day jthere shall be jno light, cold, or frost.5 7 kAnd there shall be a unique6 day, lwhich is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but mat evening time there shall be light.
8 eOn that day nliving waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to othe eastern sea7 and half of them to othe western sea.8 pIt shall continue in summer as in winter.
9 And qthe Lord will be king over all the earth. rOn that day the Lord will be sone and this name one.
10 uThe whole land shall be turned into a plain from vGeba to wRimmon south of Jerusalem. But xJerusalem shall remain aloft yon its site from zthe Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to athe Corner Gate, and from bthe Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 And it shall be inhabited, for cthere shall never again be a decree of utter destruction.9 dJerusalem shall dwell in security.
12 And this shall be ethe plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war 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 And fon that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that geach will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other. 14 Even hJudah will fight at Jerusalem.10 And ithe wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. 15 And ja plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
16 Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem kshall go up year after year to worship lthe King, the Lord of hosts, and mto keep nthe Feast of Booths. 17 And if oany of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship lthe King, the Lord of hosts, pthere will be no rain on them. 18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain;11 there shall be jthe plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up mto keep the Feast of Booths. 19 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up mto keep the Feast of Booths.
20 And qon that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, r“Holy to the Lord.” And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar. 21 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be rholy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And sthere shall no longer be ta trader12 in the house of the Lord of hosts qon that day.
14 dAnd the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and eby decree of Cyrus and fDarius and gArtaxerxes king of Persia; 15 and this house was finished on the third day of the hmonth of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.
16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the idedication of this house of God with joy. 17 They offered at the dedication of this house of God 100 bulls, 200 rams, 400 lambs, and as a sin offering for all Israel j12 male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 18 And they set the priests kin their divisions and the Levites lin their divisions, for the service of God at Jerusalem, mas it is written in the Book of Moses.
Passover Celebrated
19 nOn the fourteenth day of the first month, the returned exiles kept the Passover. 20 oFor the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together; all of them were clean. pSo they slaughtered the Passover lamb for all the returned exiles, for their fellow priests, and for themselves. 21 It was eaten by the people of Israel who had returned from exile, and qalso by every one who had joined them and separated himself rfrom the uncleanness of the peoples of the land to worship the Lord, the God of Israel. 22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread sseven days with joy, for the Lord had made them joyful tand had turned the heart of uthe king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
He Heals the Brokenhearted
1 iPraise the Lord!
For jit is good to sing praises to our God;
for kit is pleasant,1 and la song of praise is fitting.
2 The Lord mbuilds up Jerusalem;
he ngathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals othe brokenhearted
and pbinds up their wounds.
4 He qdetermines the number of the stars;
he rgives to all of them their names.
5 sGreat is our Lord, and tabundant in power;
uhis understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord vlifts up the humble;2
he casts the wicked to the ground.
7 wSing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on xthe lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares yrain for the earth;
he makes zgrass grow on the hills.
9 He agives to the beasts their food,
and to bthe young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in cthe strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord dtakes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who ehope in his steadfast love.
12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens fthe bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
14 He gmakes peace in your borders;
he hfills you with the ifinest of the wheat.
15 He jsends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives ksnow like wool;
he scatters lfrost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of mice like crumbs;
who can stand before his ncold?
18 He osends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
his pstatutes and rules3 to Israel.
20 He qhas not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.4
rPraise the Lord!
