The Return · Not dated
Chapter 6
Your King Comes
Yahweh will be King over all the earth. In that day Yahweh will be one, and his name one.
For parents
This chapter retells sayings about war and judgment, plainly and without detail. Zechariah 13:3 says that if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother will tell him he must die for speaking lies in the Lord’s name, and they will stab him. Zechariah 14:2 says that Jerusalem will be taken, its houses robbed and its women attacked and disgraced (soft words for sexual violence). Other sayings tell of a flock left to die and to eat each other (11:9), and of two parts out of three in the land cut off and dying (13:8).
The book of goes on with more of the Lord’s words, and calls them a revelation:
The Lord’s word is against the land of ,and it will rest on ,because all humankind and all the are looking to the Lord.It will rest on too, which borders it,and on and , because they are very wise.Tyre built herself a fortress.She heaped silver up like dust,and fine gold like mud in the streets.Look, the Lord will take away all she owns.He will strike her power at sea,and fire will burn her up.
Further on:
I will camp around my house against the army,so that no one passes through or comes back.No oppressor will pass through them anymore,because now I have seen it for myself.
Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!Shout, daughter of Jerusalem!Look, your King comes to you!He is righteous, and having salvation;lowly, and riding on a donkey,even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.I will cut off the chariot from Ephraimand the horse from Jerusalem.The battle bow will be cut off;and he will speak peace to the nations.His rule will reach from sea to sea,and from the River to the ends of the earth.
As for you too,because of the blood of your ,I have set your prisoners freefrom the pit that has no water in it.Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope!Even today I tell youthat I will give you back twice as much.
Further on:
The Lord their God will save them that dayas his people, his flock,because they are like the jewels in a crown,lifted high over his land.How great his goodness is, and how great his beauty!The young men will grow strong on grain,and the young women on new wine.
The words go on:
Ask the Lord for rain when spring comes,the Lord who makes storm clouds.He gives everyone showers of rainfor the plants in the field.The have said empty things,the have seen lies,and they have told dreams that aren’t true.Their comfort is worth nothing.That is why the people stray like sheep.They are mistreated, because there is no shepherd.I am angry with the shepherds,and I will punish the male goats,because the Lord of Armies has come to watch over his flock,the house of ,and he will make them like his splendid horse in battle.
Then the Lord says:
I will make the house of Judah strong,and I will save the .I have mercy on them, and I will bring them back.It will be as if I had never cast them aside,because I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them.
I will give them a signal and bring them together,because I have them.There will be as many of them as there were before.I will scatter them like seed among the peoples,and in faraway lands they will remember me.They will live with their children, and they will come home.I will bring them back out of the land of too,and gather them out of .I will bring them into the land of and ,and there won’t be room enough for them.I will give them strength in the Lord,and they will walk up and down in his name, says the Lord.
Then come these words:
Open your doors, Lebanon,so the fire can devour your .Wail, tree, because the cedar has fallen;the finest trees are destroyed.Wail, you oaks of ,because the strong forest has come down.Hear the wailing of the shepherds,because their glory is destroyed!Hear the roaring of the young lions,because the pride of the is ruined!
The Lord, Zechariah’s God, told him, “Feed the flock that is meant for slaughter. Their buyers kill them and go unpunished. The people who sell them say, ‘Praise the Lord, I’m rich!’ And their own shepherds show them no pity. I will no longer pity the people who live in the land,” says the Lord. “Look, I will hand every one of them over to his neighbor and to his king. They will strike the land, and I won’t rescue them from their hands.”
So Zechariah fed the flock meant for slaughter, and most of all the ones in the flock who were mistreated. He took two staffs. He named one of them Favor and the other Union, and he fed the flock. In one month he cut off the three shepherds. He had grown tired of them, and they hated him too.
Then he said, “I won’t feed you. Whatever is dying, let it die, and whatever is to be cut off, let it be cut off. And let the ones that are left eat each other.”
He took his staff Favor and cut it apart, to break the covenant that had been made with all the peoples. It was broken that day. And so the poor of the flock, who listened to him, knew that it was the Lord’s word.
Zechariah said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for his wages thirty pieces of silver.
The Lord said to him, “Throw it to the potter—the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” Zechariah took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the Lord’s house.
Then he cut apart his other staff, Union, to break the bond of brothers between Judah and Israel.
The Lord said to Zechariah, “Take up the gear of a foolish shepherd once more. Look, I will raise up a shepherd in the land. He won’t care for the ones that are cut off, won’t go looking for the ones that are scattered, won’t heal the broken ones, and won’t feed the healthy ones. Instead he will eat the meat of the fat sheep and tear their hoofs to pieces.
“How terrible it will be for the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will shrivel up completely, and his right eye will go totally blind!”
Then comes another revelation, the Lord’s word about Israel. The Lord stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and shapes the spirit inside every person, and he says:
Look, I will make into a cupthat makes all the peoples around her stagger.It will be on Judah too, in the siege against Jerusalem.When that day comes, I will make Jerusalem a stone that weighs heavy on all the peoples.Everyone who lifts it will be badly hurt,and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against her.
Further on:
The Lord will save Judah’s tents first,so the glory of David’s houseand of the people of Jerusalemwon’t be raised above Judah’s.When that day comes, the Lord will defend everyone living in Jerusalem.Whoever is weakest among them will be like ,and David’s house will be like God,like in front of them.On that day I will move to destroyevery nation that comes against Jerusalem.
I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalemthe spirit of grace and of supplication.They will look to me whom they have pierced;and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son,and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn.
On that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem,like the mourning of in the valley of .The land will mourn, each family alone,and their wives alone:the families of David’s house and of Nathan’s,of ’s house and of the Shimeites,and all the families that are left.
The Lord’s words go on:
On that day there will be a fountain,opened for David’s house and the people of Jerusalem,to wash them clean of sin and .
On that day, says the Lord of Armies,I will cut the names of the out of the land,and they won’t be remembered anymore.I will also make the leave the land,and the spirit of uncleanness with them.If anyone still prophesies,the father and mother who brought him into the worldwill tell him, “You must die,because you speak lies in the Lord’s name.”The father and mother who brought him into the worldwill stab him when he prophesies.
On that day each of the prophets will feel ashamedof his vision when he prophesies.They won’t wear a hairy cloak to fool people.Instead, each will say, “I’m not a prophet. I work the ground,because I was made a servant when I was young.”Someone will say to him, “What are these wounds between your arms?”and he will answer, “I was wounded like this in the house of my friends.”
“Awake, sword, against my shepherd,and against the man who is close to me,” says the Lord of Armies.“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
“In all the land,” says the Lord,“two parts out of three will be cut off and die,but the third part will be left.I will bring that third part into the fire.I will refine them the way silver is refinedand test them the way gold is tested.They will call on my name, and I will hear them.I will say, ‘This is my people,’and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
Last come these words:
Look, a day of the Lord is coming,when the things stolen from you will be shared out inside your walls.For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to fight.The city will be taken and its houses robbed,and the women attacked and disgraced.Half the city will be taken away as captives,and the rest of the people won’t be cut off from the city.
Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations,the way he fought on the day of battle.His feet will stand that day on the ,across from Jerusalem on the east.The Mount of Olives will split in two from east to west,making a huge valley.Half the mountain will move north,and half of it south.You will run away through the valley of my mountains,for the valley of the mountains will reach as far as Azel.Yes, you will run, as you ran when the earthquake camein the days of king of Judah.The Lord my God will come,and all the holy ones with you.
Then:
On that day there won’t be light,or cold, or frost.It will be a day like no other, a day the Lord knows,neither day nor night,but in the evening there will be light.
On that day living waters will go out from Jerusalem,half of them toward the eastern seaand half toward the western sea,summer and winter alike.The Lord will be King over all the earth.When that day comes, the Lord will be one,and his name one.
The whole land will become like the ,from to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem.And Jerusalem will be raised high and stay in her place,from Benjamin’s Gate to the place of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate,and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses.People will live in her, and there will be no more curse.Jerusalem will live in safety.
Further on:
All who are left of the nations that came against Jerusalemwill go up every yearto worship the King, the Lord of Armies,and to keep the .Whichever families of the earth don’t go up to Jerusalemto worship the King, the Lord of Armies,will have no rain.
On that day the bells on the horses will be engraved“HOLY TO YAHWEH.”The pots in the Lord’s house will be like the bowls in front of the .Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the Lord of Armies,and everyone who offers a sacrifice will come, take some of them, and cook in them.On that day there won’t be a in the house of the Lord of Armies any longer.