Old Testament · Zechariah

Zechariah 8

The Restoration of Jerusalem

(Micah 4:6–13)

1And the word of the LORD of hosts^a came, saying: 2Thus said the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and with great fury I am jealous for her.

3Thus said the LORD: I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.

4Thus said the LORD of hosts: Yet shall old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem, and each man^b with his staff in his hand for the multitude of days. 5And the broad places of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its broad places.

6Thus said the LORD of hosts: If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also be marvelous in my eyes? declares the LORD of hosts.

7Thus said the LORD of hosts: Behold, I am saving^c my people from the land of the east, and from the land of the going-in of the sun. 8And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for God, in truth and in righteousness.

9Thus said the LORD of hosts: Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who were in the day that the house of the LORD of hosts was founded, the temple, that it might be built. 10For before those days there was no wage for the man^d, nor any wage for the beast; and for him who went out and for him who came in there was no peace from the adversary; for I sent all men, each man against his neighbor. 11And now, not as in the former days am I to the remnant of this people, declares the LORD of hosts.

12For the seed of peace: the vine shall give her fruit, and the land shall give her produce, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these. 13And it shall come to pass, as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing; do not fear, let your hands be strong.

14For thus said the LORD of hosts: As I purposed to do evil to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, said the LORD of hosts, and I did not relent; 15so again have I purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; do not fear. 16These are the things which you shall do: Speak truth each man with his neighbor; truth and the judgment^e of peace, judge in your gates; 17And let not each man devise the evil of his neighbor in your heart, and do not love a false oath; for all these are what I have hated, declares the LORD.

18And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying: 19Thus said 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, shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness, and for good appointed times (moedim); and love truth and peace.

20Thus said the LORD of hosts: Yet shall there come peoples, and the inhabitants of many cities; 21And the inhabitants of one shall go to another, saying: Let us surely go to entreat the face of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will go, even I. 22And many peoples and mighty nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the LORD.

23Thus said the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from all the tongues of the nations shall take hold, and they shall take hold of the skirt of a man, a Jew, saying: Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.