Zechariah 10-11

Contemporary English Version

A Bright Future for Judah and Israel

10 I, the Lord, am the one
    who sends storm clouds
and showers of rain
    to make fields produce.
So when the crops need rain,
    you should pray to me.

²^(A) You can't believe idols
    and fortunetellers,
or depend on the hope
you receive from witchcraft
    and interpreters of dreams.
But you have tried all of these,
and now you are like sheep
    without a shepherd.

³I, the Lord All-Powerful,
    am fiercely angry
with you leaders,
    and I will punish you.
I care for my people,
    the nation of Judah,
and I will change
this flock of sheep
    into charging war horses.

⁴From this flock will come leaders
    who will be strong
like cornerstones and tent pegs
    and weapons of war.
⁵They will join in the fighting,
and together they will trample
    their enemies like mud.
They will fight,
because I, the Lord,
    will be on their side.
And they will crush
    the enemy cavalry.

⁶I will strengthen
the kingdoms of Judah
    and Israel.^[a]
And I will show mercy
because I am the Lord,
    their God.
I will answer their prayers
    and bring them home.
Then it will seem as though
    I had never rejected them.
⁷Israel^[b] will be like
a tribe of warriors
    celebrating with wine.
When their children see this,
they will also be happy
    because of me, the Lord.

⁸I will give a signal
for them to come together
    because I have rescued them.
And there will be as many
    as ever before.
⁹^(B) Although I scattered my people
in distant countries,
    they won't forget me.
Once their children are raised,^[c]
    they will return—
¹⁰I will bring them home
from Egypt and Assyria,
    then let them settle
as far as Gilead and Lebanon,
until the land overflows
    with them.
¹¹My people will go through
    an ocean of troubles,
but I will overcome the waves
and dry up the deepest part
    of the Nile.
Assyria's great pride
    will be put down,
and the power of Egypt
    will disappear.
¹²I'll strengthen my people
because of who I am,
    and they will follow me.
I, the Lord, have spoken!

Trouble for Israel's Enemies

11 Lebanon, open your gates!
Let the fire come in
    to destroy your cedar trees.
²Cry, you cypress trees!
The glorious cedars have fallen
    and are rotting.
Cry, you oak trees of Bashan!
The dense forest
    has been chopped down.
³Listen! Shepherds are crying.
Their glorious pastures
    have been ruined.
Listen! Lions are roaring.
The forests of the Jordan Valley
    are no more to be found.

Worthless Shepherds

⁴The Lord my God said to me:

Tend those sheep doomed for slaughter! ⁵The people who buy and butcher them go unpunished, while everyone who sells them says, “Praise the Lord! I'm rich.” Not even their shepherds have pity on them.

⁶Tend those sheep because I, the Lord, will no longer have pity on the people of this earth. I'll turn neighbor against neighbor and make them slaves of a king. They will bring disaster on the earth, and I'll do nothing to rescue any of them.

⁷So I became a shepherd of those sheep doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep dealers.^[d] And I gave names to the two sticks I used for tending the sheep: One of them was named “Mercy” and the other “Unity.” ⁸In less than a month, I became impatient with three shepherds who didn't like me, and I got rid of them. ⁹Then I said, “I refuse to be your shepherd. Let the sheep that are going to die, go on and die, and those that are going to be destroyed, go on and be destroyed. Then let the others eat one another alive.”

¹⁰On that same day, I broke the stick named “Mercy” to show that the Lord had canceled his agreement with all people. ¹¹The sheep dealers who saw me knew at once that this was a message from the Lord. ^12-13^(C) I told them, “Pay me my wages, if you think you should; otherwise, forget it.” So they handed me my wages, a measly 30 pieces of silver.

Then the Lord said, “Throw the money into the treasury.”^[e] So I threw the money into the treasury at the Lord's temple. ¹⁴Then I broke the stick named “Unity” and canceled the ties between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Next, the Lord said to me, “Act like a shepherd again—this time a worthless shepherd. ¹⁶Once more I am going to let a worthless nobody rule the land—one who won't care for the strays or search for the young or heal the sick or feed the healthy. He will just dine on the fattest sheep, leaving nothing but a few bones.”

¹⁷You worthless shepherd,
deserting the sheep!
I hope a sword
will cripple your arm
and blind your right eye.

Footnotes

10.6 Israel: The Hebrew text has “family of Joseph,” the ancestor of Ephraim and Manasseh, the leading tribes of the northern kingdom (Israel).
10.7 Israel: Hebrew “Ephraim” (see the note at 9.10).
10.9 Once … raised: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
11.7 by the sheep dealers: One ancient translation; Hebrew “especially the weak ones.”
11.12,13 Throw … treasury: Hebrew “Throw the money to the potter.”