Zechariah 9-11

Zechariah 9

¹The burden of the word of the LORD upon the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be its resting place: for the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is toward the LORD:

²and Hamath also which bordereth thereon: Tyre and Zidon, because she is very wise.

³And Tyre did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.

⁴Behold, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.

⁵Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also, and shall be sore pained; and Ekron, for her expectation shall be ashamed: and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

⁶And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.

⁷And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; and he also shall be a remnant for our God: and he shall be as a chieftain in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

⁸And I will encamp about mine house against the army, that none pass through or return: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes.

⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even upon a colt the foal of an ass.

¹⁰And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and he shall speak peace unto the nations: and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.

¹²Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee.

¹³For I have bent Judah for me, I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and will make thee as the sword of a mighty man.

¹⁴And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

¹⁵The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine: and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar.

¹⁶And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted on high over his land.

¹⁷For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maids.

Zechariah 10

¹Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain, even of the LORD that maketh lightnings; and he shall give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

²For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

³Mine anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the he-goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and shall make them as his goodly horse in the battle.

⁴From him shall come forth the corner stone, from him the nail, from him the battle bow, from him every exactor together.

⁵And they shall be as mighty men, treading down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight, because the LORD is with them: and the riders on horses shall be confounded.

⁶And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again, for I have mercy upon them; and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them.

⁷And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see it, and rejoice; their heart shall be glad in the LORD.

⁸I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.

⁹And I will sow them among the peoples; and they shall remember me in far countries: and they shall live with their children, and shall return.

¹⁰I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and place shall not be found for them.

¹¹And he shall pass through the sea of affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up: and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the sceptre of Egypt shall depart away.

¹²And I will strengthen them in the LORD; and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the LORD.

Zechariah 11

¹Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

²Howl, O fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the goodly ones are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest is come down.

³A voice of the howling of the shepherds! for their glory is spoiled: a voice of the roaring of young lions! for the pride of Jordan is spoiled.

⁴Thus said the LORD my God: Feed the flock of slaughter;

⁵whose possessors slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; and they that sell them say, Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich: and their own shepherds pity them not.

⁶For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD: but, lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbour’s hand, and into the hand of his king: and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.

⁷So I fed the flock of slaughter, verily the poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.

⁸And I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.

⁹Then said I, I will not feed you: that that dieth, let it die; and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let them which are left eat every one the flesh of another.

¹⁰And I took my staff Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.

¹¹And it was broken in that day: and thus the poor of the flock that gave heed unto me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

¹²And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my hire; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my hire thirty pieces of silver.

¹³And the LORD said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, the goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them unto the potter, in the house of the LORD.

¹⁴Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵And the LORD said unto me, Take unto thee yet again the instruments of a foolish shepherd.

¹⁶For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek those that be scattered, nor heal that that is broken; neither shall he feed that which is sound, but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and shall tear their hoofs in pieces.

¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd that leaveth the flock, the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.