Zechariah

Lo, a day of GOD is coming when yourayour Jerusalem is addressed. spoil shall be divided in your very midst!

For I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for war: The city shall be captured, the houses plundered, and the women violated; and a part of the city shall go into exile. But the rest of the population shall not be uprooted from the city.

Then GOD will come forth and make war on those nations as a fighter makes war on a day of battle.

On that day, God’s feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, near Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall split across from east to west, and one part of the Mount shall shift to the north and the other to the south, a huge gorge.

bVocalizing the repeated verb as (we-)nistam with Targum, Septuagint, and an old Heb. ms. Other mss. and printed editions read “You [pl.] shall flee [to] the Valley in the Hills, for the Valley of the Hills shall reach up to Azal. You shall flee as you fled because of the earthquake.…” And the Valley in the Hills shall be stopped up, for the Valley of the Hills shall reach only to Azal; it shall be stopped up as it was stopped up as a result of the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah.

cMeaning of verse uncertain; cf. Job 21.26. In that day, there shall be neither sunlight nor cold moonlight,

but there shall be a continuous day—only GOD knows when—of neither day nor night, and there shall be light at eventide.

In that day, fresh water shall flow from Jerusalem, part of it to the Eastern Seadthe Eastern Sea I.e., the Dead Sea; cf. Joel 2.20. and part to the Western Sea,ethe Western Sea I.e., the Mediterranean Sea; cf. Joel 2.20. throughout the summer and winter.

And GOD shall be sovereign over all the earth; in that day there shall be one GOD with one name.fone GOD with one name I.e., GOD alone shall be worshiped—and shall be invoked by that name only.

Then the whole country shall become like the Arabah,glike the Arabah I.e., depressed like the Jordan Valley. from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem.hfrom Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem I.e., from the northern border of the Kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 15.22; 2 Kings 23.8) to the southern border (Josh. 15.32; 19.7). The latter, however, shall perch high up where it is, and shall be inhabitedishall be inhabited Moved up from v. 11 for clarity. from the Gate of Benjamin to the site of the Old Gate,

Never again shall destruction be decreed, and Jerusalem shall dwell secure.

As for those peoples that warred against Jerusalem, GOD will smite them with this plague: Their flesh shall rot away while they stand on their feet; their eyes shall rot away in their sockets; and their tongues shall rot away in their mouths.

In that day, a great panic from GOD shall fall upon them, and everyone shall snatch at the hand of another, and everyone shall raise their hand against everyone else’s hand.

Judah shall join the fighting in Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the nations round about—vast quantities of gold, silver, and clothing—shall be gathered in.

The same plague shall strike the horses, the mules, the camels, and the donkeys; the plague shall affect all the animals in those camps.

All who survive of all those nations that came up against Jerusalem shall make a pilgrimage year by year to bow low to the Supreme GOD of Hosts and to observe the Feast of Booths.

Any of the earth’s communities that does not make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem to bow low to the Supreme GOD of Hosts shall receive no rain.

However, if the community of Egypt does not make this pilgrimage, it shall not be visited by the same affliction with which GOD will strike the other nations that do not come up to observe the Feast of Booths.jBecause Egypt is not dependent on rain, it will suffer some other punishment, presumably that described in v. 12.

Such shall be the punishment of Egypt and of all other nations that do not come up to observe the Feast of Booths.

In that day, even the bells on the horses shall be inscribed “Holy to GOD.” The metal pots in the House of GOD shall be like the basins before the altar;

indeed, every metal pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy to GOD of Hosts. And all those who sacrifice shall come and take of these to boil [their sacrificial meat] in; in that day there shall be no more tradersktraders To sell ritually pure vessels. in the House of GOD of Hosts.