Zechariah 12
1 A prophecy: This message came from the Lord concerning Israel, a declaration of the Lord who spread out the heavens, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who placed the breath of life within human beings.
An oracle. This is the message of the Lord about Israel. The Lord who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the human spirit within people says:
2 Look! I am going to make Jerusalem like a cup containing alcoholic drink that will make all the surrounding nations stagger like drunks when they come to attack Judah and Jerusalem.
Look! I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness for all the surrounding peoples. There will be a siege of Jerusalem.
3 On that day I will make Jerusalem like a heavy rock to all peoples. Anyone who tries to lift the rock will injure themselves badly. All the nations will join together to attack Jerusalem.
On that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone to be lifted up by all the peoples. All who lift it up will surely hurt themselves! And all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it.
4 On that day I will make every horse panic-stricken and every rider go mad, declares the Lord, but I will watch over the people of Judah while I blind all the horses of their enemies.
On that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. But over the house of Judah I will keep watch, though I strike every horse belonging to the peoples with blindness.
5 Then the families of Judah will say to themselves, the people of Jerusalem are strong in their God, the Lord Almighty.
And the chieftains of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The strength of the inhabitants is in the Lord of hosts their God.’
6 On that day I will make the families of Judah like burning coals in a wood, like a flaming torch in a field of straw. They will burn up to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while the people of Jerusalem will live safely in their city.
In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire in the woods, like a torch among sheaves, they will devour right and left all the surrounding peoples. But Jerusalem will abide on its own site.
7 The Lord will give the victory to the soldiers of Judah first so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not be greater than that of Judah.
And the Lord will first give victory to the tents of Judah, so that the glory of the house of David, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not exalted above Judah.
8 On that day the Lord will place a shield around the people of Jerusalem so that even the clumsiest of them will be as skilled a warrior as David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the Lord who leads them.
In that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the feeblest among them will in that day be like David, and the house of David like God, like the messenger of the Lord before them.
9 On that day I will start destroying all those nations that attack Jerusalem.
And in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations who have come up against Jerusalem.
10 I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They will look at me whom they pierced, and they will wail in grief over him, mourning as for an only child, weeping bitterly as for a firstborn.
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of pity and compassion. They will look on him whom they have pierced and they will lament for him as one laments for an only son. They will bitterly grieve for him as one grieves for the firstborn.
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning in Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
In that day mourning will be as great in Jerusalem as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
12 The land will mourn, every family alone: the family house of David alone and their women by themselves, the families of Nathan,
And the land will mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves, and the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves,
13 Levi, and Shimei—
and the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves,
14 and all the surviving families and their women, each group mourning alone by themselves.
and all the families who are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.
