Add parallel Print Page Options

Behold, Your King Comes to You[a]

Rejoice with all your heart, O daughter Zion.
    Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem.
See, your king is coming to you,
    triumphant and victorious,
humble and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 He will banish the chariot from Ephraim
    and the horses of war from Jerusalem.
The warrior’s bow will be banished,
    and he will proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion will be from sea to sea,
    and from the river to the ends of the earth.

The Reestablishment of Israel

11 As for you,
    because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set free your prisoners
    from the waterless dungeon.
12 Return to the fortress,
    you prisoners who have waited in hope.
This very day I promise
    that I will reward you twofold.
13 For I have strung Judah as my bow
    and made Ephraim its arrow.
I have roused your sons, O Zion,
    and have made you like a warrior’s sword
    against your sons, O Javan.
14 Then the Lord will appear over them,
    and his arrow will flash forth like lightning.
The Lord God will sound the trumpet
    and march forth in the stormwinds of the south.
15 The Lord of hosts will protect them,
    and they will overcome
    as they trample underfoot the slingstones.
They will drink blood like wine,
    filled to the brim like a bowl,
    drenched like the corners of the altar.
16 The Lord, their God, will save them on that day,
    for they are his flock, his own people.
Like the precious stones of a crown
    they will sparkle throughout his land.
17 What wealth and what beauty will be theirs,
    with grain to make the young men flourish
    and with new wine for the maidens!

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 9:9 The plan of God will be brought to fulfillment not amid military and political greatness but in humility and peace. When Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he will fulfill this prediction to the letter (see Mt 21:4f). Ephraim stands for the entire kingdom of Israel, of which it was the principal tribe. The prophet is thinking, therefore, of a gathering of all the nations. From sea to sea: from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. The river is the Euphrates.