Chapter
8
The Restoration of Jerusalem
Promised
1: The word of the Lord
of hosts came to me, saying:
2: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with
great wrath.
3: Thus says the Lord: I will return
to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called
the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts shall be called the
holy mountain.
4: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each
with staff in hand because of their great age.
5: And the streets of the city
shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
6: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these
days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the Lord of hosts?
7: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west
country;
8: and I will bring them to
live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in
faithfulness and in righteousness.
9: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: Let your hands be strong-you that have recently been hearing these words
from the mouths of the prophets who were present when the foundation was laid
for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of the Lord of hosts.
10:
For
before those days there were no wages for people or for animals, nor was there
any safety from the foe for those who went out or came in, and I set them all
against one another.
11: But
now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, says
the Lord of hosts.
12:
For
there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, the ground
shall give its produce, and the skies shall give their dew; and I will cause the
remnant of this people to possess all these things.
13:
Just
as you have been a cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of
Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but
let your hands be strong.
14: For thus says the
Lord of hosts: Just as I purposed to bring disaster upon you, when your
ancestors provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the Lord of
hosts,
15:
so
again I have purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of
Judah; do not be afraid.
16:
These
are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in
your gates judgments that are true and make for peace,
17:
do
not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for
all these are things that I hate, says the Lord.
18:
The
word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
19: Thus
says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the
fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be seasons
of joy and gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah: therefore
love truth and peace.
20:
Thus
says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, the inhabitants of many cities;
21:
the
inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, "Come, let us go to
entreat the favor of the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am
going."
22:
Many
peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem,
and to entreat the favor of the Lord.
23:
Thus
says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language
shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, "Let us go with
you, for we have heard that God is with you."
Chapter
9
The Judgment on Neighboring
Nations
1: The word of the Lord
is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. For to the Lord
belongs the capital of Aram, as do all the tribes of Israel;
2: Hamath also, which borders
on it, Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.
3: Tyre has built itself a
rampart, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the
streets.
4: But now, the Lord
will strip it of its possessions and hurl its wealth into the sea, and it shall
be devoured by fire.
5: Ashkelon shall see it and
be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes
are withered. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be
uninhabited;
6: a mongrel people shall
settle in Ashdod, and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.
7: I will take away its blood
from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a
remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like
the Jebusites.
8: Then I will encamp at my
house as a guard, so that no one shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall
again overrun them, for now I have seen with my own eyes.
Zion's Future King
9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter
Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant
and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a
donkey.
10:
He
will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the
battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his
dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the
earth.
11:
As
for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your
prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12:
Return
to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to
you double.
13:
For
I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will arouse your
sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior's
sword.
14: Then the Lord will
appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord God will
sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.
15:
The
Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the
slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl,
drenched like the corners of the altar.
16:
On
that day the Lord their God will save them for they are the flock of his
people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.
17:
For
what goodness and beauty are his! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and
new wine the young women.
Chapter
10
The LORD's Redemption of His
People
1: Ask rain from the
Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm
clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the field to
everyone.
2: For the teraphim utter
nonsense, and the diviners see lies; the dreamers tell false dreams, and give
empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they suffer for lack
of a shepherd.
3: My anger is hot against the
shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord of hosts cares for his
flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his proud war-horse.
4: Out of them shall
come the cornerstone, out of them the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out
of them every commander.
5: Together they shall be like
warriors in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall
fight, for the Lord is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on
horses.
6: I will strengthen the house
of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I
have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them;
for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.
7: Then the people of Ephraim
shall become like warriors, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their
children shall see it and rejoice, their hearts shall exult in the Lord.
8: I will signal for them and
gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as numerous as they
were before.
9: Though I scattered them
among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and they shall
rear their children and return.
10:
I
will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria; I
will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, until there is no room
for them.
11:
They
shall pass through the sea of distress, and the waves of the sea shall be
struck down, and all the depths of the Nile dried up. The pride of Assyria
shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.
12:
I
will make them strong in the Lord, and they shall walk in his name, says the
Lord.
Chapter
11
1: Open your doors, O
Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars!
2: Wail, O cypress, for the
cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for
the thick forest has been felled!
3: Listen, the wail of the
shepherds, for their glory is despoiled! Listen, the roar of the lions, for the
thickets of the Jordan are destroyed!
The Foolish Shepherds
4: Thus said the Lord my
God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
5: Those who buy them kill
them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, "Blessed be the Lord,
for I have become rich"; and their own shepherds have no pity on
them.
6: For I will no longer have
pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord. I will cause them, every
one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbor, and each into the hand of the
king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their
hand.
7: So, on behalf of the sheep
merchants, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two
staffs; one I named Favor, the other I named Unity, and I tended the
sheep.
8: In one month I disposed of
the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also
detested me.
9: So I said, "I will not
be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it
be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one
another!"
10:
I
took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with
all the peoples.
11:
So
it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants, who were watching me,
knew that it was the word of the Lord.
12:
I
then said to them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if
not, keep them." So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of
silver.
13:
Then
the Lord said to me, "Throw it into the treasury" -this lordly price
at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw
them into the treasury in the house of the Lord.
14: Then I broke my
second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.
15:
Then
the Lord said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless
shepherd.
16:
For
I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing,
or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy, but devours
the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
17:
Oh,
my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and
his right eye! Let his arm be completely withered, his right eye utterly
blinded!
Chapter
12
The Future Deliverance of
Jerusalem
1: The word of the Lord
concerning Israel: Thus says the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and
founded the earth and formed the human spirit within:
2: See, I am about to make
Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples; it will be against
Judah also in the siege against Jerusalem.
3: On that day I will make
Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously
hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth shall come together against
it.
4: On that day, says the
Lord, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But on
the house of Judah I will keep a watchful eye, when I strike every horse of the
peoples with 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: On that day I will make the
clans of Judah like a blazing pot on a pile of wood, like a flaming torch among
sheaves; and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding
peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in
Jerusalem.
7: And the Lord will give victory
to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over that of Judah.
8: On that day the Lord will
shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among them on that day
shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel
of the Lord, at their head.
9: And on that day I will seek
to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10:
And
I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the one whom they
have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and
weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.
11:
On that
day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon
in the plain of Megiddo.
12:
The
land shall 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 Nathan 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 Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves;
14: and all the families
that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
Chapter
13
1: On that day a
fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
2: On that day, says the Lord
of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they
shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets
and the unclean spirit.
3: And if any prophets appear
again, their fathers and mothers who bore them will say to them, "You
shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord"; and their
fathers and their mothers who bore them shall pierce them through when they
prophesy.
4: On that day the
prophets will be ashamed, every one, of their visions when they prophesy; they
will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive,
5: but each of them will say,
"I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil; for the land has been my
possession since my youth."
6:
And if anyone asks them, "What are these wounds on your chest?"
the answer will be "The wounds I received in the house of my
friends."
The Smiting of the LORD's
Shepherd
7: "Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate," says the Lord
of hosts. Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my
hand against the little ones.
8: In the whole land, says the
Lord, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one-third shall be left
alive.
9: And I will put this third
into the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, "They are
my people"; and they will say, "The Lord is our God."
Chapter
14
Jerusalem and the Nations
1: See, a day is coming for
the Lord, when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your midst.
2: For I will gather all the
nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses
looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of
the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3: Then the Lord will go forth
and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.
4: On that day his feet
shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east;
and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide
valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other
half southward.
5: And you shall flee by the
valley of the Lord's mountain, for the valley between the mountains shall reach
to Azal; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King
Uzziah of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with
him.
6: On that day there shall not
be either cold or frost.
7: And there shall be
continuous day (it is known to the Lord), not day and not night, for at evening
time there shall be light.
8: On that day living waters
shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them
to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.
9: And the Lord will become
king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name
one.
10:
The
whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem.
But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the
place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to
the king's wine presses.
11:
And
it shall be inhabited, for never again shall it be doomed to destruction;
Jerusalem shall abide in security.
12:
This
shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage
war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their
feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in
their mouths.
13:
On
that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will
seize the hand of a neighbor, and the hand of the one will be raised against
the hand of the other;
14: even Judah will fight
at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be
collected-gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.
15:
And
a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the
donkeys, and whatever animals may be in those camps.
16:
Then
all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up
year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the
festival of booths.
17:
If
any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King,
the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain upon them.
18:
And
if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then on them shall
come the plague that the Lord inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep
the festival of booths.
19:
Such
shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do
not go up to keep the festival of booths.
20:
On
that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the
Lord." And the cooking pots in the house of the Lord shall be as holy as
the bowls in front of the altar;
21:
and
every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the Lord of hosts,
so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the
sacrifice. And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord of
hosts on that day.
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