Xa-cha-ri 9

An oracle against Hadrach, Tyre and the Philistines

¹An oracle. The word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach, \q and Damascus is where it will come to rest; \q for the eye of the LORD is on all humankind \q and on all the tribes of Israel,^{a 2}and on Hamath too, which borders it, \q and on Tyre and Sidon, wise as they think they are. ³Tyre has built herself a fortress; \q she has piled up silver like dust, \q and gold like mud in the streets. ⁴But look, the Lord will strip her of all she has \q and hurl her power down into the sea, \q and she will be burned up with fire. ⁵Ashkelon will see it and be afraid; Gaza will twist in pain, \q and Ekron too, for what she trusted in has failed. \q Gaza will lose her king, \q and Ashkelon will be left empty. ⁶A people of mixed birth will settle in Ashdod, \q and I will cut down the pride of the Philistines. ⁷I will take the blood out of their mouths and the forbidden food from between their teeth. \q Those who are left will belong to our God; \q they will become one of the clans of Judah, \q and Ekron will be like the Jebusites. ⁸I will camp around my house to guard it from those who march back and forth. \q No oppressor will overrun them again, \q for now I am watching with my own eyes.

Your king is coming

⁹Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout aloud, Daughter Jerusalem! \q Look, your king is coming to you; \q righteous and victorious is he, \q humble and riding on a donkey, \q on a colt, the foal of a donkey.^{b 10}I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war horses from Jerusalem, \q and the battle bow will be broken. \q He will proclaim peace to the nations; \q his rule will stretch from sea to sea, \q from the River to the far ends of the earth. ¹¹As for you, because of the blood of your covenant, \q I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit. ¹²Come back to the stronghold, \q you prisoners who have hope! \q Even today I announce \q that I will give back to you double. ¹³For I will bend Judah as my bow and set Ephraim on it as my arrow. \q I will rouse your sons, Zion, \q against your sons, Greece, \q and make you like a warrior’s sword. ¹⁴Then the LORD will appear above them, \q and his arrow will flash out like lightning. \q The Lord GOD will sound the ram’s horn \q and march out in the storm winds from the south. ¹⁵The LORD of Armies will shield them. \q They will devour and trample the sling stones; \q they will drink and roar as if with wine. \q They will be filled like a sacrificial bowl, \q drenched like the corners of the altar.^{c 16}On that day the LORD their God will save them, for they are his people, his flock. \q Like jewels in a crown \q they will sparkle over his land. ¹⁷How good and how lovely they will be! \q The young men will flourish on grain, \q and the young women on new wine.^d