Oct 8 - Zechariah 8-14

¹And the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying²Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have been zealous for Zion with a great zeal, and with a great indignation have I been zealous for her³Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have been turned back towards Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem will be called: "The City of Truth," and "The Mountain of the Lord of Hosts, the Sanctified Mountain.⁴Thus says the Lord of hosts: Then elderly men and elderly women will dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man will be with his walking stick in his hand, because of the multitude of days⁵And the streets of the city will be filled with toddlers and children, playing in its streets⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts: If it seems difficult in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, could it indeed be difficult in my eyes, says the Lord of hosts⁷Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the land of the East, and from the land of the setting of the sun⁸And I will lead them, and they will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in justice⁹Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strengthened, you who, in those days, are listening to these words by the mouth of the prophets, in the day that the house of the Lord of hosts has been founded, so that the temple may be built¹⁰Indeed, before those days, there was no pay for men, nor was there pay for beasts of burden, and neither was there peace for those entering, nor for those exiting, because of the tribulation. And I had dismissed all men, each one against his neighbor¹¹But now, I will not act towards the remnant of this people according to the former days, says the Lord of hosts¹²But there will be a seed of peace: the vine will give her fruit, and the earth will give her seedlings, and the heavens will give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things¹³And this shall be: just as you were a curse among the Gentiles, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid. Let your hands be strengthened¹⁴For thus says the Lord of hosts: Just as I intended to afflict you, when your fathers had provoked me to wrath, says the Lord¹⁵and I did not show mercy, so have I turned back, thinking in these days to do good to the house of Judah and to Jerusalem. Do not be afraid¹⁶Therefore, these are the words that you shall do: Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor. With truth and a judgment of peace, judge at your gates¹⁷And let not anyone think up evil against his friend in your hearts. And do not choose to swear falsely. For all these are things that I hate, says the Lord¹⁸And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying¹⁹Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will be for the house of Judah in joy and gladness and with bright solemnities. So then, love truth and peace²⁰Thus says the Lord of hosts, then the people may arrive and dwell in many cities²¹and the inhabitants may hurry, one saying to another: "Let us go and entreat the face of the Lord, and let us seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also.²²And many peoples and strong nations will approach, seeking the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the Lord²³Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days, then, ten men from every language of the Gentiles will grasp and cling to the hem of one man of Judea, saying: "We will go with you. For we have heard that God is with you.

Chapter 9

¹The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and its respite in Damascus. For the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is of the Lord²Hamath also is at its limits, and Tyre and Sidon. For, of course, they have assumed themselves to be exceedingly wise³And Tyre has built herself a fortress, and she has piled together silver, as if it were soil, and gold, as if it were the mud of the streets⁴Behold, the Lord will possess her, and he will strike her strength in the sea, and she will be devoured by fire⁵Ashkelon will see and be afraid. Both Gaza and he will be very sorrowful, as well as Ekron, because her hope has been confounded. And the king will pass away from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited⁶And the divider will sit in Ashdod, and I will scatter the arrogance of the Philistines⁷And I will take away his blood from his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth, and yet he will be left for our God, and he will be like a governor in Judah, and Ekron will be like a Jebusite⁸And I will encircle my house with those who serve me in war, going and returning, and the exactor will no longer pass over them. For now I have seen with my eyes⁹Rejoice well, daughter of Zion, shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King will come to you: the Just One, the Savior. He is poor and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt, the son of a donkey¹⁰And I will scatter the four-horse chariot out of Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be destroyed. And he will speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power will be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth¹¹You, likewise, by the blood of your testimony, have sent forth your prisoners from the pit, in which there is no water¹²Turn back to the fortress, prisoners of hope. Today, I also announce that I will repay you double¹³because I have stretched out Judah for myself, like a bow; I have filled Ephraim. And I will raise up your sons, Zion, above your sons, Greece. And I will set you as the sword of the strength¹⁴And the Lord God will be seen over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning. And the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and he will go forth into the whirlwind of the South¹⁵The Lord of hosts will protect them. And they will devour and subdue with the stones of the sling. And, when drinking, they will become inebriated, as if with wine, and they will be filled like bowls and like the horns of the altar¹⁶And in that day, the Lord their God will save them as the flock of his people. For holy stones will be lifted up over his land¹⁷For what is his goodness and what is his beauty, other than grain among the elect and wine springing forth virgins

Chapter 10

¹Petition before the Lord for rain in the latter time, and the Lord will produce snows and will give showers of rain to them, to each blade in the field²For the images have been speaking what is useless, and the diviners have seen a lie, and the dreamers have been speaking false hope: they have comforted in vain. For this reason, they have been led away like a flock; they will be afflicted, because they have no shepherd³My fury has been kindled over the shepherds, and I will visit upon the he-goats. For the Lord of hosts has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and he has set them like the horse of his glory in the war⁴From him will go forth the angle, from him the wooden peg, from him the bow of battle, from him every exactor at the same time⁵And they will be like the strong, trampling the mud of the ways in battle. And they will fight, for the Lord is with them. And the riders of the horses will be confounded⁶And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will convert them, because I will have mercy on them. And they will be as they were when I had not cast them away. For I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them⁷And they will be like the strong of Ephraim, and their heart will rejoice as if by wine, and their sons will see and will rejoice, and their heart will exult in the Lord⁸I will whistle for them, and I will gather them together, because I have redeemed them. And I will multiply them, as they had been multiplied before⁹And I will sow them among the peoples, and from far away they will remember me. And they will live with their sons, and they will return¹⁰And I will lead them back from the land of Egypt, and I will gather them from among the Assyrians, and I will lead them to the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and no place will be left that has not been found by them¹¹And he will pass over the narrow passage of the sea, and he will strike the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the river will be confounded, and the arrogance of Assyria will be brought low, and the scepter of Egypt will withdraw¹²I will strengthen them in the Lord, and they will walk in his name, says the Lord

Chapter 11

¹Open your gates, Lebanon, and let fire consume your cedars²Howl, 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 down³The 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 devastated⁴Thus says the Lord my God: Feed the flock of the slaughter⁵which 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.⁶And 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 hand⁷And 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 flock⁸And I cut down three shepherds in one month. And my soul became contracted concerning them, just as their soul also varied concerning me⁹And 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 neighbor¹⁰And 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 people¹¹And 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 Lord¹²And 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 coins¹³And 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 statuary¹⁴And I cut short my second staff, which was called Rope, so that I might dissolve the brotherhood between Judah and Israel¹⁵And the Lord said to me: Still they are to you the equipment of a foolish shepherd¹⁶For 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 hoofs¹⁷O 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

Chapter 12

¹The 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, says²Behold, 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 Jerusalem³And 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 her⁴In 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 blindness⁵And 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.⁶In 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 Jerusalem⁷And 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 Judah⁸In 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 sight⁹And this shall be in that day: I will seek to crush all the Gentiles that come against Jerusalem¹⁰And 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 firstborn¹¹In that day, there will be a great lamentation in Jerusalem, like the lamentation of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo¹²And the earth will mourn: families and families separately; the families of the house of David separately, and their women separately¹³the 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 separately¹⁴all the rest of the families, families and families separately, and their women separately

Chapter 13

¹In 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 woman²And 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 earth³And 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 prophesy⁴And 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 deceive⁵But he will say, "I am not a prophet; I am a man of agriculture. For Adam has been my example from my youth.⁶And 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.⁷Awake, 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 ones⁸And 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 behind⁹And 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.

Chapter 14

¹Behold, the days of the Lord will arrive, and your spoils will be divided in your midst²And 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 city³Then the Lord will go forth, and he will fight against those Gentiles, just as when he fought in the day of conflict⁴And 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 Meridian⁵And 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 him⁶And this shall be in that day: there will not be light, only cold and frost⁷And 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 light⁸And 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 winter⁹And the Lord will be King over all the earth. In that day, there will be one Lord, and his name will be one¹⁰And 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 king¹¹And they will dwell in it, and there will be no further anathema, but Jerusalem shall sit securely¹²And 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 mouth¹³In 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 neighbor¹⁴And 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 garments¹⁵And, 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 ruination¹⁶And 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 tabernacles¹⁷And 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 them¹⁸But 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 tabernacles¹⁹This 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 tabernacles²⁰In 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 altar²¹And 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