Old Testament · Zechariah

Zechariah 12

The Coming Deliverance of Jerusalem

1The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit^a of man^b within him:

2Behold, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the peoples round about; and also upon Judah it shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.

3And it shall come to pass in that day, I will make Jerusalem a stone of burden to all the peoples; all who burden themselves with it shall be utterly gashed; and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered against it.

4In that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with bewilderment, and its rider with madness; and upon the house of Judah I will open my eyes, and every horse of the peoples I will strike with blindness.

5And the chiefs of Judah shall say in their heart: A strength to me are the inhabitants of Jerusalem, through the LORD of hosts^c their God.

6In that day I will make the chiefs of Judah like a pan of fire among the trees, and like a torch of fire among sheaves; and they shall devour, on the right and on the left, all the peoples round about; and Jerusalem shall dwell again in her place, in Jerusalem.

7And the LORD shall save^d the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitant of Jerusalem be not magnified above Judah. 8In that day the LORD shall defend over the inhabitant of Jerusalem; and the one stumbling among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David like God, like the angel of the LORD before them.

9And it shall come to pass in that day, I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning the One They Pierced

(John 19:31–37)

10And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitant of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look to me, the one whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for the only son, and shall be bitter over him as one is bitter over the firstborn.

11In that day the mourning in Jerusalem shall be great, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon. 12And the land shall mourn, family by family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives^e apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeite apart, and their wives apart; 14All the families that remain, family by family apart, and their wives apart.