< Zechariah 12 >
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.