Zechariah 13

Living Bible

13 “At that time a Fountain will be opened to the people of Israel and Jerusalem, a Fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.”

² And the Lord Almighty declares, “In that day I will get rid of every vestige of idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. All false prophets and fortune-tellers will be wiped out, ³ and if anyone begins false prophecy again, his own father and mother will slay him! ‘You must die,’ they will tell him, ‘for you are prophesying lies in the name of the Lord.’

⁴ “No one will be boasting then of his prophetic gift! No one will wear prophet’s clothes to try to fool the people then.

⁵ “‘No,’ he will say. ‘I am not a prophet; I am a farmer. The soil has been my livelihood from my earliest youth.’

⁶ “And if someone asks, ‘Then what are these scars on your chest and your back?’^[a] he will say, ‘I got into a brawl at the home of a friend!’

⁷ “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, the man who is my associate and equal,” says the Lord Almighty. “Strike down the Shepherd and the sheep will scatter, but I will come back and comfort and care for the lambs. ⁸ Two-thirds of all the nation of Israel will be cut off and die,^[b] but a third will be left in the land. ⁹ I will bring the third that remain through the fire and make them pure, as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call upon my name and I will hear them; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”