Zechariah 12

⁵This is what God the Lord says—He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it:

¹⁵The Lord made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

¹⁶For I will not accuse you forever, nor will I always be angry; for then the spirit of man would grow weak before Me—the breath of life I have made.

²⁵In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

²⁶They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will be passed on.

⁹Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

¹⁰And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.

¹¹They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment.

¹⁴Judah will also fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance.

⁸For a cup is in the hand of the Lord, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.

²²Thus says your Lord, the Lord, even your God, who defends His people: “See, I have removed from your hand the cup of staggering. From that goblet, the cup of My fury, you will never drink again.

²³I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”

¹⁷Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; you who have drained the goblet to the dregs—the cup that makes men stagger.

⁵⁷I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁹The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.

⁴⁴He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

²For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.

³Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.

³⁴As you watched, a stone was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them.

³⁵Then the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff on the threshing floor in summer. The wind carried them away, and not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that had struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

¹⁸Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.”

¹⁴When you see, you will rejoice, and you will flourish like grass; then the hand of the Lord will be revealed to His servants, but His wrath will be shown to His enemies.

¹⁵For behold, the Lord will come with fire—His chariots are like a whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.

⁶On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost.

²⁸The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind,

³On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured.

³⁰Although God overlooked the ignorance of earlier times, He now commands all people everywhere to repent.

⁶On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there.

¹⁷Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

⁵The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.

⁶At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both horse and rider lie stunned.

¹⁶The Lord will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

³²It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way clear.

¹²I will strengthen them in the Lord, and in His name they will walk,” declares the Lord.

³⁹You have armed me with strength for battle; You have subdued my foes beneath me.

¹Of David. Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.

⁶Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He answers him from His holy heaven with the saving power of His right hand.

⁷Some trust in chariots and others in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

¹⁸Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph a burning flame; but the house of Esau will be stubble—Jacob will set it ablaze and consume it. Therefore no survivor will remain from the house of Esau.” For the Lord has spoken.

⁴and said to him, “Run and tell that young man: ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the multitude of men and livestock within it.

⁶May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a double-edged sword in their hands,

⁷to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,

⁴⁴In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.

⁴⁵And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

⁵And He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land and tramples our citadels. We will raise against it seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men.

⁶And they will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod with the blade drawn. So He will deliver us when Assyria invades our land and marches into our borders.

¹Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city of Jerusalem, while the remaining nine were to dwell in their own towns.

²And the people blessed all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.

¹⁸This is what the Lord says: “I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on his dwellings. And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins, and the palace will stand in its rightful place.

²⁶May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.

¹²For it is not an enemy who insults me; that I could endure. It is not a foe who rises against me; from him I could hide.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of works? No, but on that of faith.

¹¹“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old,

⁵Listen, my beloved brothers: Has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised those who love Him?

²But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

³Therefore Israel will be abandoned until she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of His brothers will return to the children of Israel.

⁸But I will camp around My house because of an army, because of those who march to and fro, and never again will an oppressor overrun My people, for now I keep watch with My own eyes.

¹⁶The Lord will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

⁸Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.

¹⁶Nations will see and be ashamed, deprived of all their might. They will put their hands over their mouths, and their ears will become deaf.

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’

¹⁷No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.

²For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.

³Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.

²²I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn chariots and their riders; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.

²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem.

⁷Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

²⁹And I will no longer hide My face from them, for I will pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

³⁴Instead, one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

³⁵The one who saw it has testified to this, and his testimony is true. He knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

²⁸And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

²⁹Even on My menservants and maidservants, I will pour out My Spirit in those days.

²⁶O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

³³Exalted, then, to the right hand of God, He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

²⁴So his servants took him out of his chariot, put him in his second chariot, and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died. And Josiah was buried in the tomb of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him.

²⁹During Josiah’s reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went out to confront him, but Neco faced him and killed him at Megiddo.

⁷Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.

⁵Do not deprive each other, except by mutual consent and for a time, so you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you through your lack of self-control.

³¹the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David,

³⁰At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

³by asking the priests of the house of the Lord of Hosts, as well as the prophets, “Should I weep and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”

¹⁴These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

⁷The Gershonites: Ladan and Shimei.

⁸But Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David’s mighty men would not join Adonijah.

⁵As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the family of the house of Saul was just coming out. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and as he approached, he kept yelling out curses.

²⁷Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many children, so their whole clan did not become as numerous as the sons of Judah.

¹⁴Jehiel and Shimei from the Hemanites; and Shemaiah and Uzziel from the Jeduthunites.

¹⁰And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These were the sons of Shimei—four in all.

¹²If you are wise, you are wise to your own advantage; but if you scoff, you alone will bear the consequences.