The Living Bible (294 page)

Zechariah
9

This is the message concerning God’s curse on the lands of Hadrach and Damascus, for the Lord is closely watching all mankind, as well as Israel.
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²
 “Doomed is Hamath, near Damascus, and Tyre and Sidon too, shrewd though they be.
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 Though Tyre has armed herself to the hilt and become so rich that silver is like dirt to her, and fine gold like dust in the streets,
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 yet the Lord will dispossess her and hurl her fortifications into the sea; and she shall be set on fire and burned to the ground.

    
⁵
 “Ashkelon will see it happen and be filled with fear; Gaza will huddle in desperation, and Ekron will shake with terror, for their hopes that Tyre would stop the enemies’ advance will all be dashed. Gaza will be conquered, her king killed, and Ashkelon will be completely destroyed.

    
⁶
 “Foreigners will take over the city of Ashdod, the rich city of the Philistines.
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 I will yank her idolatry out of her mouth and pull from her teeth her sacrifices that she eats with blood. Everyone left will worship God and be adopted into Israel as a new clan: the Philistines of Ekron will intermarry with the Jews, just as the Jebusites did so long ago.
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 And I will surround my Temple like a guard to keep invading armies from entering Israel. I am closely watching their movements, and I will keep them away; no foreign oppressors will again overrun my people’s land.

    
⁹
 “Rejoice greatly, O my people! Shout with joy! For look—your King is coming! He is the Righteous One, the Victor! Yet he is lowly, riding on a donkey’s colt!
¹⁰
 I will disarm all peoples of the earth, including my people in Israel, and he shall bring peace among the nations. His realm shall stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.
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¹¹
 “I have delivered you from death in a waterless pit because of the covenant I made with you, sealed with blood.
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 Come to the place of safety, all you prisoners, for there is yet hope! I promise right now, I will repay you two mercies for each of your woes!
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 Judah, you are my bow! Ephraim, you are my arrow! Both of you will be my sword, like the sword of a mighty soldier brandished against the sons of Greece.”

    
¹⁴
 The Lord shall lead his people as they fight! His arrows shall fly like lightning; the Lord God shall sound the trumpet call and go out against his enemies like a whirlwind off the desert from the south.
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 He will defend his people, and they will subdue their enemies, treading them beneath their feet. They will taste victory and shout with triumph. They will slaughter their foes, leaving horrible carnage everywhere.
^16-17
 The Lord their God will save his people in that day, as a Shepherd caring for his sheep. They shall shine in his land as glittering jewels in a crown. How wonderful and beautiful all shall be! The abundance of grain and grapes will make the young men and girls flourish; they will be radiant with health and happiness.

Zechariah
10

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime, and he will answer with lightning and showers. Every field will become a lush pasture.
²
 How foolish to ask the idols for anything like that! Fortune-tellers’ predictions are all a bunch of silly lies; what comfort is there in promises that don’t come true? Judah and Israel have been led astray and wander like lost sheep; everyone attacks them, for they have no shepherd to protect them.

    
³
 “My anger burns against your ‘shepherds’—your leaders—and I will punish them—these goats. For the Lord Almighty has arrived to help his flock of Judah. I will make them strong and glorious like a proud steed in battle.
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 From them will come the Cornerstone, the Peg on which all hope hangs, the Bow that wins the battle, the Ruler over all the earth.
*
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 They will be mighty warriors for God, grinding their enemies’ faces into the dust beneath their feet. The Lord is with them as they fight; their enemy is doomed.

    
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 “I will strengthen Judah, yes, and Israel too; I will reestablish them because I love them. It will be as though I had never cast them all away, for I, the Lord their God, will hear their cries.
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 They shall be like mighty warriors. They shall be happy as with wine. Their children, too, shall see the mercies of the Lord and be glad. Their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord.
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 When I whistle to them, they’ll come running, for I have bought them back again. From the few that are left, their population will grow again to former size.
⁹
 Though I have scattered them like seeds among the nations, still they will remember me and return again to God; with all their children, they will come home again to Israel.
¹⁰
 I will bring them back from Egypt and Assyria and resettle them in Israel—in Gilead and Lebanon; there will scarcely be room for all of them!
¹¹
 They shall pass safely through the sea of distress,
*
for the waves will be held back. The Nile will become dry—the rule of Assyria and Egypt over my people will end.”

    
¹²
 The Lord says, “I will make my people strong with power from me! They will go wherever they wish, and wherever they go they will be under my personal care.”

Zechariah
11

Open your doors, O Lebanon, to judgment.
*
You will be destroyed as though by fire raging through your forests.
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 Weep, O cypress trees, for all the ruined cedars; the tallest and most beautiful of them are fallen. Cry in fear, you oaks of Bashan, as you watch the thickest forests felled.
³
 Listen to the wailing of Israel’s leaders—all these evil shepherds—for their wealth is gone. Hear the young lions roaring—the princes are weeping, for their glorious Jordan Valley lies in ruins.

    
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 Then said the Lord my God to me, “Go and take a job as shepherd of a flock being fattened for the butcher.
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 This will illustrate the way my people have been bought and slain by wicked leaders, who go unpunished. ‘Thank God, now I am rich!’ say those who have betrayed them—their own shepherds have sold them without mercy.
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 And I won’t spare them either,” says the Lord, “for I will let them fall into the clutches of their own wicked leaders, and they will slay them. They shall turn the land into a wilderness, and I will not protect it from them.”

    
⁷
 So I took two shepherd’s staffs, naming one Grace and the other Union, and I fed the flock as I had been told to do.
⁸
 And I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month. But I became impatient with these sheep—this nation—and they hated me too.

    
⁹
 So I told them, “I won’t be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die; if you are killed, I don’t care. Go ahead and destroy yourselves!”

    
¹⁰
 And I took my staff called Grace and snapped it in two, showing that I had broken my contract to lead and protect them.
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 That was the end of the agreement. Then those who bought and sold sheep, who were watching, realized that God was telling them something through what I did.

    
¹²
 And I said to their leaders, “If you like, give me my pay, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.”

    
So they counted out thirty little silver coins
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as my wages.

    
¹³
 And the Lord told me, “Use it to buy a field from the pottery makers
*
—this magnificent sum they value you at!”

    
So I took the thirty coins and threw them into the Temple for the pottery makers.
¹⁴
 Then I broke my other staff, “Union,” to show that the bond of unity between Judah and Israel was broken.

    
¹⁵
 Then the Lord told me to go again and get a job as a shepherd; this time I was to act the part of a worthless, wicked shepherd.

    
¹⁶
 And he said to me, “This illustrates how I will give this nation a shepherd who will not care for the dying ones, nor look after the young, nor heal the broken bones, nor feed the healthy ones, nor carry the lame that cannot walk; instead, he will eat the fat ones, even tearing off their feet.
¹⁷
 Woe to this worthless shepherd who doesn’t care for the flock. God’s sword will cut his arm and pierce through his right eye; his arm will become useless and his right eye blinded.”

Zechariah
12

This is the fate of Israel, as pronounced by the Lord, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him:

    
²
 “I will make Jerusalem and Judah like a cup of poison to all the nearby nations that send their armies to surround Jerusalem.
³
 Jerusalem will be a heavy stone burdening the world. And though all the nations of the earth unite in an attempt to move her, they will all be crushed.

    
⁴
 “In that day,” says the Lord, “I will bewilder the armies drawn up against her, and make fools of them, for I will watch over the people of Judah, but blind all her enemies.

    
⁵
 “And the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem have found strength in the Lord Almighty, their God.’

    
⁶
 “In that day I will make the clans of Judah like a little fire that sets the forest aflame—like a burning match among the sheaves; they will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while Jerusalem stands unmoved.
⁷
 The Lord will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David won’t be filled with pride at their success.

    
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 “The Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal line will be as God, like the Angel of the Lord who goes before them!
⁹
 For my plan is to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

    
¹⁰
 “Then I will pour out the spirit of grace and prayer on all the people of Jerusalem. They will look on him they pierced, and mourn for him as for an only son, and grieve bitterly for him as for an oldest child who died.
¹¹
 The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem at that time will be even greater than the grievous mourning for the godly King Josiah,
*
who was killed in the valley of Megiddo.

    
^12-14
 “All of Israel will weep in profound sorrow. The whole nation will be bowed down with universal grief—king, prophet, priest, and people. Each family will go into private mourning, husbands and wives apart, to face their sorrow alone.