The Flock Doomed to Slaughter

4 Thus said the Lord my God: ^o“Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 ^pThose who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, ^qI have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For ^rI will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”

7 ^sSo I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named ^uFavor, the other I named ^vUnion. ^sAnd I tended the sheep. 8 In one month ^wI destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. ^xWhat is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.” 10 And I took ^ymy staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages ^zthirty pieces of silver. 13 Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—^athe lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the ^zthirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter. 14 Then I broke ^bmy second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of ^ca foolish shepherd. 16 For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd ^dwho does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but ^edevours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

The Lord Will Give Salvation

12 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.

13 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.’¹ 6 And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’² he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Struck

The Coming Day of the Lord

14 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.¹

6 ^eOn that day ^jthere shall be ^jno light, cold, or frost.² 7 ^kAnd there shall be a unique³ 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 sea⁴ and half of them to ^othe western sea.^{5 p}It 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.^{6 d}Jerusalem 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.⁷ 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;⁸ 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 trader⁹ in the house of the Lord of hosts ^qon that day.

Malachi

1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.¹

The Lord’s Love for Israel

2 ^a“I have loved you,” says the Lord. ^bBut you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau ^cJacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet ^dI have loved Jacob 3 but Esau I have hated. ^eI have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.” 4 If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’” 5 ^fYour own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the Lord beyond the border of Israel!”

The Priests’ Polluted Offerings

6 ^g“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am ^ha father, where is my honor? And if I am ⁱa master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. ^bBut you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ 7 ^jBy offering polluted food upon my altar. ^bBut you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that ^kthe Lord’s table may be despised. 8 ^lWhen you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? says the Lord of hosts. 9 And now ^mentreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, ⁿwill he show favor to any of you? says the Lord of hosts. 10 ^oOh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, ^pand I will not accept an offering from your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name ^qwill be² great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name ^qwill be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12 But you profane it when you say that ^rthe Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised. 13 But you say, ^s‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. ^tYou bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord. 14 Cursed be the cheat who has ^ua male in his flock, and ^vvows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For ^wI am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name ^xwill be feared among the nations.