Zechariah

A pronouncement: The word of GOD concerning Israel.The utterance of GOD,Who stretched out the skiesAnd made firm the earth,And created mortals’ breath within them:

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a bowl of reeling for the peoples all around. Judah shall be caught up in the siege upon Jerusalem,

when all the nations of the earth gather against her. In that day, I will make Jerusalem a stone for all the peoples to lift; all who lift it shall injure themselves.

In that day—declares GOD—I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. But I will watch over the House of Judah while I strike every horse ofawatch over the House of Judah while I strike every horse of Emendation yields “open the eyes of Judah while I strike all.” the peoples with blindness.

And the clans of Judah will say to themselves, “The dwellers of Jerusalem are a task set for us bybThe dwellers of Jerusalem are a task set for us by Emendation yields “We will save the dwellers of Jerusalem with the help of.” their God, GOD of Hosts.”

In that day, I will make the clans of Judah like a flaming brazier among sticks and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They shall devour all the besieging peoples right and left; and Jerusalem shall continue on its site, in Jerusalem.cJerusalem Emendation yields “safety.”

GOD will give victory to the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the House of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be too great for Judah.

In that day, GOD will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the feeblest of them shall be in that day like David, and the House of David like a divine being—like an angel of GOD—at their head.

In that day I will all but annihilatedall but annihilate For the idiom cf. Gen. 43.30; it is also attested in postbiblical Hebrew. all the nations that came up against Jerusalem.

But I will fill the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem with a spirit of pity and compassion; and they shall lamentelament Meaning of Heb. uncertain. to Me about those who are slain, wailing over them as over a favorite son and showing bitter grief as over a first-born.

In that day, the wailing in Jerusalem shall be as great as the wailing at Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddon.fMegiddon Usually “Megiddo.”

The land shall wail, each family by itself: The family of the House of David by themselves, and their womenfolk by themselves; the family of the House of Nathan by themselves, and their womenfolk by themselves;

the family of the House of Levi by themselves, and their womenfolk by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by themselves, and their womenfolk by themselves;

and all the other families, every family by itself, with their womenfolk by themselves.gIn this way, apparently, they will prevail upon GOD to spare the remnant of the besieging nations; cf. v. 10.