Zechariah 7

1 In the fourth year of Darius the king (the word of the LORD came to Zechariah), on the fourth day of Chislev, the ninth month,
2 Bethelsarezer sent Regemmelech and his men to implore favor of the LORD
3 and to ask the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, Must I mourn and abstain in the fifth month as I have been doing these many years?
4 Thereupon this word of the LORD of hosts came to me:
5 Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?
6 And when you were eating and drinking, was it not for yourselves that you ate, and for yourselves that you drank?
7 Were not these the words which the LORD spoke through the former prophets, when Jerusalem and the surrounding cities were inhabited and at peace, when the Negeb and the foothills were inhabited?
8 (This word of the LORD came to Zechariah:
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts:) Render true judgment, and show kindness and compassion toward each other.
10 Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor; do not plot evil against one another in your hearts.
11 But they refused to listen; they stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears so as not to hear.
12 And they made their hearts diamondhard so as not to hear the teaching and the message that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets.
13 Then the LORD of hosts in his great anger said that, as they had not listened when he called, so he would not listen when they called,
14 but would scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they did not know. Thus the land was left desolate after them with no one traveling to and fro; they made the pleasant land into a desert.

Zechariah 8

1 This word of the LORD of hosts came: Thus says the LORD of hosts:
2 I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred to jealous wrath for her.
3 Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem.
5 The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in her streets.
6 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the LORD of hosts?
7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Lo, I will rescue my people from the land of the rising sun, and from the land of the setting sun.
8 I will bring them back to dwell within Jerusalem. They shall be my people, and I will be their God, with faithfulness and justice.
9 Thus says the LORD of hosts: Let your hands be strong, you who in these days hear these words spoken by the prophets on the day when the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid for the building of the temple.
10 For before those days there were no wages for men, or hire for beasts; those who came and went had no security from the enemy, for I set every man against his neighbor.
11 But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in former days, says the LORD of hosts,
12 for it is the seedtime of peace: the vine shall yield its fruit, the land shall bear its crops, and the heavens shall give their dew; all these things I will have the remnant of the people possess.
13 Just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you that you may be a blessing; do not fear, but let your hands be strong.
14 Thus says the LORD of hosts: As I determined to harm you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says the LORD of hosts, and I did not relent,
15 so again in these days I have determined to favor Jerusalem and the house of Judah; do not fear!
16 These then are the things you should do: Speak the truth to one another; let there be honesty and peace in the judgments at your gates,
17 and let none of you plot evil against another in his heart, nor love a false oath. For all these things I hate, says the LORD.
18 This word of the LORD of hosts came to me:
19 Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast days of the fourth, the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months shall become occasions of joy and gladness, cheerful festivals for the house of Judah; only love faithfulness and peace.
20 Thus says the LORD of hosts: There shall yet come peoples, the inhabitants of many cities;
21 and the inhabitants of one city shall approach those of another, and say, Come! let us go to implore the favor of the LORD; and, I too will go to seek the LORD.
22 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to implore the favor of the LORD.
23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men of every nationality, speaking different tongues, shall take hold, yes, take hold of every Jew by the edge of his garment and say, Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

Zechariah 9

1 An oracle: The word of the LORD is upon the land of Hadrach, and Damascus is its resting place, For the cities of Aram are the LORD'S, as are all the tribes of Israel,
2 Hamath also, on its border, Tyre too, and Sidon, however wise they be.
3 Tyre built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the mire of the streets.
4 Lo, the LORD will strip her of her possessions, and smite her power on the sea, and she shall be devoured by fire.
5 Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid; Gaza also: she shall be in great anguish; Ekron, too, for her hope shall come to nought. The king shall disappear from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited,
6 and the baseborn shall occupy Ashdod. I will destroy the pride of the Philistine
7 and take from his mouth his bloody meat, and his abominations from between his teeth: He also shall become a remnant for our God, and shall be like a family in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.
8 I will encamp by my house as a guard that none may pass to and fro; No oppressor shall pass over them again, for now I have regard for their affliction.
9 Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion, shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, Meek, and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.
10 He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; The warrior's bow shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, for the blood of your covenant with me, I will bring forth your prisoners from the dungeon.
12 In the return to the fortress of the waiting prisoners, This very day, I will return you double for your exile.
13 For I will bend Judah as my bow, I will arm myself with Ephraim; I will arouse your sons, O Zion, (against your sons, O Yavan,) and I will use you as a warrior's sword.
14 The LORD shall appear over them, and his arrow shall shoot forth as lightning; The LORD God shall sound the trumpet, and come in a storm from the south.
15 The LORD of hosts shall be a shield over them, they shall overcome sling stones and trample them underfoot; They shall drink blood like wine, till they are filled with it like libation bowls, like the corners of the altar.
16 And the LORD, their God, shall save them on that day, his people, like a flock. For they are the jewels in a crown raised aloft over his land.
17 For what wealth is theirs, and what beauty! grain that makes the youths flourish, and new wine, the maidens!

Zechariah 10

1 Ask of the LORD rain in the spring season! It is the LORD who makes storm clouds. And sends men the pouring rain; for everyone, grassy fields.
2 For the teraphim speak nonsense, the diviners have false visions: Deceitful dreams they tell, empty comfort they offer. This is why they wander like sheep, wretched: they have no shepherd.
3 My wrath is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; For the LORD of hosts will visit his flock, the house of Judah, and make them his stately war horse.
4 From him shall come leader and chief, from him warrior's bow and every officer.
5 They shall all be warriors, trampling the mire of the streets in battle; They shall wage war because the LORD is with them, and shall put the horsemen to rout.
6 I will strengthen the house of Judah, the house of Joseph I will save; I will bring them back, because I have mercy on them, they shall be as though I had never cast them off, for I am the LORD, their God, and I will hear them.
7 Then Ephraim shall be valiant men, and their hearts shall be cheered as by wine. Their children shall see it and be glad, their hearts shall rejoice in the LORD.
8 I will whistle for them to come together, and when I redeem them they will be as numerous as before.
9 I sowed them among the nations, yet in distant lands they remember me; they shall rear their children and return.
10 I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them into Gilead and into Lebanon, but these shall not suffice them;
11 I will cross over to Egypt and smite the waves of the sea and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be cast down, and the scepter of Egypt taken away.
12 I will strengthen them in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name, says the LORD.