Zechariah 12

1 An oracle. This is the message of the Lord about Israel. The Lord who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the human spirit within people says:

The burden of a word of Jehovah on Israel. An affirmation of Jehovah, Stretching out heaven, and founding earth, And forming the spirit of man in his midst.

2 Look! I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness for all the surrounding peoples. There will be a siege of Jerusalem.

Lo, I am making Jerusalem a cup of reeling To all the peoples round about, And also against Judah it is, In the siege against Jerusalem.

3 On that day that I will make Jerusalem a stone to be lifted up by all the peoples. All who lift it up will surely hurt themselves! And all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples, All loading it are completely pressed down, And gathered against it have been all nations of the earth.

4 On that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. But over the house of Judah I will keep watch, though I strike every horse belonging to the peoples with blindness.

In that day — an affirmation of Jehovah, I do smite every horse with astonishment, And its rider with madness, And on the house of Judah I open My eyes, And every horse of the peoples I smite with blindness.

5 And the chieftains of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The strength of the inhabitants is in the Lord of hosts their God.’

And leaders of Judah have said in their heart, 'Strength to me [are] the inhabitants of Jerusalem, In Jehovah of Hosts their God.'

6 In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire in the woods, like a torch among sheaves, they will devour right and left all the surrounding peoples. But Jerusalem will abide on its own site.

In that day I make the leaders of Judah As a hearth of fire among trees, And as a torch of fire in a sheaf, And they have consumed — on the right and on the left — all the peoples round about, And Jerusalem hath inhabited again her place in Jerusalem.

7 And the Lord will first give victory to the tents of Judah, so that the glory of the house of David, and of the inhabitants of Jerusalem be not exalted above Judah.

And saved hath Jehovah the tents of Judah first, So that become not great against Judah Doth the beauty of the house of David, And the beauty of the inhabitant of Jerusalem.

8 In that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the feeblest among them will in that day be like David, and the house of David like God, like the messenger of the Lord before them.

In that day cover over doth Jehovah the inhabitant of Jerusalem, And the stumbling among them hath been in that day as David, And the house of David as God — As a messenger of Jehovah — before them.

9 And in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations who have come up against Jerusalem.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, I seek to destroy all the nations Who are coming in against Jerusalem,

10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of pity and compassion. They will look on him whom they have pierced and they will lament for him as one laments for an only son. They will bitterly grieve for him as one grieves for the firstborn.

And I have poured on the house of David, And on the inhabitant of Jerusalem, A spirit of grace and supplications, And they have looked unto Me whom they pierced, And they have mourned over it, Like a mourning over the only one, And they have been in bitterness for it, Like a bitterness over the first-born.

11 In that day mourning will be as great in Jerusalem as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

In that day, great is the mourning of Jerusalem, As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon,

12 And the land will mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves, and the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves,

And mourned hath the land — every family apart, The family of the house of David apart, And their women apart; The family of the house of Nathan apart, And their women apart;

13 and the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves,

The family of the house of Levi apart, And their women apart; The family of Shimei apart, And their women apart,

14 and all the families who are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

All the families that are left, Every family apart, and their women apart!