Zechariah 12

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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The word of the LORD concerning Israel

¹An oracle. The word of the LORD concerning Israel. This is what the LORD declares, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundations of the earth and forms the human spirit within each person:

Jerusalem, a cup that sends the peoples reeling

²Look, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah too will be caught up in the siege against Jerusalem. ³On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; everyone who tries to lift it will be badly hurt. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. ⁴On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike all the horses with terror and their riders with madness. I will keep my eyes open over the house of Judah, but I will strike the horses of the peoples with blindness. ⁵Then the clans of Judah will say to themselves, “The people of Jerusalem are our strength, through the LORD of Armies, their God.” ⁶On that day I will make Judah’s clans like a firepot set in a pile of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves of grain. They will consume all the surrounding peoples on the right and on the left, while Jerusalem stays secure in its place.

Judah rescued, and Jerusalem in mourning

⁷The LORD will rescue the tents of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem will not be raised above Judah. ⁸On that day the LORD will shield the people of Jerusalem. On that day even the feeblest of them will be like David, and David’s house like God, like the angel of the LORD at their head. ⁹On that day I will set about destroying every nation that comes against Jerusalem. ¹⁰On the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem I will pour out a spirit of grace and of prayer for mercy. They will look on me, the one they pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and weep bitterly over him as for a firstborn son. ¹¹On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning at Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²The whole land will mourn, each clan on its own: the clan of David’s house on its own, and their wives on their own; the clan of Nathan’s house on its own, and their wives on their own; ¹³the clan of Levi’s house on its own, and their wives on their own; the clan of the Shimeites on its own, and their wives on their own; ¹⁴and all the clans that remain, each clan on its own, and their wives on their own.