Zechariah 12

GOD’S WORD Translation

The Lord Will Save Jerusalem

12 This is the prophetic revelation, the Lord’s word about Israel. The Lord—who spread out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit in a person—says, ² “I’m going to make Jerusalem like a cup ⌞of wine⌟ that makes all the surrounding people stagger. They will attack Judah along with Jerusalem. ³ On that day I will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift. All who try to lift it will be severely injured. All the nations in the world will gather ⌞to fight⌟ against Jerusalem.”

⁴ The Lord declares, “On that day I will strike every horse with panic and every rider with madness. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will strike all the horses of the nations blind. ⁵ Then the leaders of Judah will think to themselves, ‘The people who live in Jerusalem are strong because of the Lord of Armies, their God.’

⁶ “On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire on a pile of wood and like a burning torch among freshly cut straw. They will burn up all the surrounding nations to the right and to the left. But the people of Jerusalem will remain safe in Jerusalem.

⁷ “The Lord will save Judah’s tents first so that the honor of David’s family and the honor of those who live in Jerusalem will not be greater than the honor of Judah. ⁸ On that day the Lord will defend those who live in Jerusalem so that even those who stumble will be like David, and David’s family will be like God, like the Messenger of the Lord ahead of them.

⁹ “On that day I will seek to destroy all the nations who attack Jerusalem.

The People of Jerusalem Will Look at the One They Stabbed

¹⁰ “I will pour out the Spirit of blessing and mercy on David’s family and on those who live in Jerusalem. They will look at me, whom they have stabbed. Then they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will cry bitterly for him as one cries for a firstborn son. ¹¹ On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as intense as the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn, each family by itself: the family of David by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself, and the wives by themselves; ¹³ the family of Levi by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and the wives by themselves. ¹⁴ All the families that are left ⌞will mourn⌟, each by itself, and the wives by themselves.”