Zechariah

12 A pronouncement:

2 “Here I am making Jerusalem a cup* that causes all the surrounding peoples to stagger; and there will be a siege against Judah as well as against Jerusalem.+ 3 In that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy* stone to all the peoples. All those who lift it are sure to be severely injured;+ and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against her.+ 4 In that day,” declares Jehovah, “I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. I will keep my eyes on the house of Judah, but I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 And the sheikhs* of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to me by means of Jehovah of armies their God.’+ 6 In that day I will make the sheikhs of Judah like a fiery pot among wood and like a fiery torch in a row of cut grain,+ and they will consume all the surrounding peoples on the right and on the left;+ and Jerusalem will again be inhabited in her place,* in Jerusalem.+

7 “And Jehovah will save the tents of Judah first, so that the beauty* of the house of David and the beauty* of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be too great over Judah. 8 In that day Jehovah will be a defense around the inhabitants of Jerusalem;+ in that day the one who stumbles* among them will be like David, and the house of David like God, like Jehovah’s angel who goes before them.+ 9 And in that day I will be certain to annihilate all the nations that come against Jerusalem.+

10 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of favor and supplication, and they will look to the one whom they pierced,+ and they will wail over him as they would wail over an only son; and they will grieve bitterly over him as they would grieve over a firstborn son. 11 In that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be great, like the wailing at Ha·dad·rimʹmon in the Plain of Me·gidʹdo.+ 12 And the land will wail, each family by itself; the family of David’s house by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of Nathan’s+ house by itself, and their women by themselves; 13 the family of Leʹvi’s+ house by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the Shimʹe·ites+ by itself, and their women by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left remaining, each family by itself, and their women by themselves.