Category: Zechariah

1 Open your gates, Lebanon, and let fire consume your cedars.

2 Howl, you fir tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the magnificent have been devastated. Howl, you oaks of Bashan, because the secure forest passage has been cut down.

3 The voice of the howling of the shepherds: for their magnificence has been devastated. The voice of the roaring of the lions: because the arrogance of the Jordan has been devastated.

4 Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter,

5 which those who possessed them cut down, and they did not feel sorrow, and they sold them, saying: “Blessed be the Lord; we have become wealthy. Even their shepherds did not spare them.”

6 And so, I will no longer spare the inhabitants upon the earth, says the Lord. Behold, I will deliver men, each one into the hand of his neighbor and into the hand of his king. And they will cut down the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.

7 And I will pasture the flock of the slaughter, because of this, O poor of the flock. And I took to myself two staffs: the one I called Handsome, and the other I called Rope, and I pastured the flock.

8 And I cut down three shepherds in one month. And my soul became contracted concerning them, just as their soul also varied concerning me.

9 And I said: I will not pasture you. Whatever dies, let it die. And whatever is cut down, let it be cut down. And let the rest of them devour, each one the flesh of his neighbor.

10 And I took my staff, which was called Handsome, and I tore it apart, so as to invalidate my pact, which I had struck with all of the people.

11 And it became invalid in that day. And so they understood, just like the poor of the flock who stay close to me, that this is the word of the Lord.

12 And I said to them: If it is good in your eyes, bring me my wages. And if not, remain still. And they weighed for my wages thirty silver coins.

13 And the Lord said to me: Cast it towards the statuary, the handsome price at which I have been valued by them. And I took the thirty silver coins, and I cast them into the house of the Lord, towards the statuary.

14 And I cut short my second staff, which was called Rope, so that I might dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

15 And the Lord said to me: Still they are to you the equipment of a foolish shepherd.

16 For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit what is forsaken, nor seek what is scattered, nor heal what is broken, nor nourish what remains standing, and he will consume the flesh of the fatted ones and break their hoofs.

17 O shepherd and idol, abandoning the flock, with a sword upon his arm and over his right eye: his arm will be withered by drought, and his right eye will be obscured by darkness.

1 The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel. The Lord, stretching forth the heavens and founding the earth and forming the spirit of man within him, says:

2 Behold, I will set Jerusalem as a lintel of the effects of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, yet even Judah will be in the blockade against Jerusalem.

3 And this shall be: In that day, I will set Jerusalem as a burdensome stone to every people. All who will lift it up will be torn to pieces. And all the kingdoms of the earth will be gathered together against her.

4 In that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with stupor and his rider with madness. And I will open my eyes upon the house of Judah, and I will strike every horse of the people with blindness.

5 And the governors of Judah will say in their heart, “Let the inhabitants of Jerusalem be strengthened for me, in the Lord of hosts, their God.”

6 In that day, I will set the governors of Judah like a flaming furnace among wood, and like a flaming torch among hay. And they will devour, to the right and to the left, all the surrounding peoples. And Jerusalem will be inhabited again, in her own place, in Jerusalem.

7 And the Lord will save the tabernacles of Judah, just as in the beginning, so that the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not glorify themselves boastfully against Judah.

8 In that day, the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and even he who will have offended from them, in that day, will be like David, and the house of David will be like that of God, just like an angel of the Lord in their sight.

9 And this shall be in that day: I will seek to crush all the Gentiles that come against Jerusalem.

10 And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of prayers. And they will look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will feel sorrow over him, as one would be sorrowful at the death of a firstborn.

11 In that day, there will be a great lamentation in Jerusalem, like the lamentation of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

12 And the earth will mourn: families and families separately; the families of the house of David separately, and their women separately;

13 the families of the house of Nathan separately, and their women separately; the families of the house of Levi separately, and their women separately; the families of Shimei separately, and their women separately;

14 all the rest of the families, families and families separately, and their women separately.

1 In that day, there will be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the washing of the transgressor and of the defiled woman.

2 And this shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts: I will disperse the names of the idols from the earth, and they will not be remembered any longer. And I will take away the false prophets and the unclean spirit from the earth.

3 And this shall be: when any devotee will continue to prophesy, his father and his mother, who conceived him, will say to him, “You shall not live, because you have been speaking a lie in the name of the Lord.” And his father and his mother, his own parents, will pierce him, when he will prophesy.

4 And this shall be: In that day, the prophets will be confounded, each one by his own vision, when he will prophesy. Neither will they be covered with a garment of sackcloth in order to deceive.

5 But he will say, “I am not a prophet; I am a man of agriculture. For Adam has been my example from my youth.”

6 And they will say to him, “What are these wounds in the middle of your hands?” And he will say, “I was wounded with these in the house of those who love me.”

7 Awake, O spear, against my shepherd and against the man that clings to me, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. And I will turn my hand to the little ones.

8 And there will be in all the earth, says the Lord, two parts in it will be scattered and will pass away, and the third part will be left behind.

9 And I will lead the third part through fire, and I will burn them just as silver is burned, and I will test them just as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will heed them. I will say, “You are my people.” And they will say, “The Lord is my God.”

1 Behold, the days of the Lord will arrive, and your spoils will be divided in your midst.

2 And I will gather all the Gentiles in battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, and the houses will be ravaged, and the women will be violated. And the central part of the city will go forth into captivity, and the remainder of the people will not be taken away from the city.

3 Then the Lord will go forth, and he will fight against those Gentiles, just as when he fought in the day of conflict.

4 And his feet will stand firm, in that day, upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem towards the East. And the mount of Olives will be divided down its center part, towards the East and towards the West, with a very great rupture, and the center of the mountain will be separated towards the North, and its center towards the Meridian.

5 And you will flee to the valley of those mountains, because the valley of the mountains will be joined all the way to the next. And you will flee, just as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And the Lord my God will arrive, and all the saints with him.

6 And this shall be in that day: there will not be light, only cold and frost.

7 And there will be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day and not night. And in the time of the evening, there will be light.

8 And this shall be in that day: the living waters will go out from Jerusalem, half of them towards the East sea, and half of them towards the furthest sea. They will be in summer and in winter.

9 And the Lord will be King over all the earth. In that day, there will be one Lord, and his name will be one.

10 And all the land will return even to the desert, from the hill of Rimmon to the South of Jerusalem. And she will be exalted, and she will dwell in her own place, from the gate of Benjamin even to the place of the former gate, and even to the gate of the corners, and from the tower of Hananel even to the pressing room of the king.

11 And they will dwell in it, and there will be no further anathema, but Jerusalem shall sit securely.

12 And this will be the plague by which the Lord will strike all the Gentiles that have fought against Jerusalem. The flesh of each one will waste away while they are standing on their feet, and their eyes will be consumed in their sockets, and their tongue will be consumed in their mouth.

13 In that day, there will be a great tumult from the Lord among them. And a man will take the hand of his neighbor, and his hand will be clasped upon the hand of his neighbor.

14 And even Judah will fight against Jerusalem. And the riches of all the Gentiles will be gathered together around them: gold, and silver, and more than enough garments.

15 And, like the ruin of the horse, and the mule, and the camel, and the donkey, and all the beasts of burden, which will have been in those encampments, so will be this ruination.

16 And all those who will be the remnant of all the Gentiles that came against Jerusalem, will go up, from year to year, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.

17 And this shall be: whoever will not go up, from the families of the earth to Jerusalem, so as to adore the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no showers upon them.

18 But if even the family of Egypt will go not up, nor approach, neither will it be upon them, but there will be ruin, by which the Lord will strike all the Gentiles, who will not go up to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.

19 This will be the sin of Egypt, and this will be the sin of all the Gentiles, who will not go up to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.

20 In that day, that which is on the bridle of the horse will be holy to the Lord. And even the cooking pots in the house of the Lord will be like holy vessels before the altar.

21 And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be sanctified to the Lord of hosts. And all those who make sacrifices will come and take from them, and will cook with them. And the merchant will no longer be in the house of the Lord of hosts, in that day.