Zechariah 12

New American Standard Bible

Jerusalem to Be Attacked

12 The pronouncement of the word of the Lord concerning Israel:

The Lord who ^(A)stretches out the heavens, ^(B)lays the foundation of the earth, and ^(C)forms the spirit of a person within him, declares: ² “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a ^(D)cup ^[a]that causes staggering to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against ^(E)Judah. ³ It will come about on that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy ^(F)stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will ^(G)injure themselves severely. And all the ^(H)nations of the earth will be gathered against it. ⁴ On that day,” declares the Lord, “I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with insanity. But I will ^[b]watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵ Then the ^[c]clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a ^[d]strong support for us through the Lord of armies, their God.’

⁶ “On that day I will make the ^[e]clans of Judah like a ^(I)firepot among pieces of wood and a flaming torch among sheaves, so they will consume on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, while ^[f]the ^(J)inhabitants of Jerusalem again live on their own sites in Jerusalem. ⁷ The Lord also will ^(K)save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of ^(L)David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be greater than Judah. ⁸ On that day the Lord will ^(M)protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who ^[g](N)is feeble among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like ^(O)God, like the ^(P)angel of the Lord before them. ⁹ And on that day I will ^(Q)seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰ “And I will ^(R)pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem ^[h]the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they ^(S)pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one ^(T)mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. ¹¹ On that day the ^(U)mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the ^[i]plain of ^[j]Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; ¹³ the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; ¹⁴ all the families that are left, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.