Zechariah 12
1 A message concerning Israel: the word of the LORD. This is the declaration of the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the human spirit within each person:
2 “Look, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that brings dizziness to all the surrounding peoples; and Judah too will be under siege against Jerusalem.
3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all peoples. All who try to lift it will badly injure themselves, and all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
4 On that day,” declares the LORD, “I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. I will keep my eyes open over the house of Judah, but I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
5 Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The strength of Jerusalem’s inhabitants is in the LORD of Armies, their God.’
6 On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot among the wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples, to the right and to the left, while Jerusalem will remain inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.
7 The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of David’s house and the glory of Jerusalem’s inhabitants will not rise above Judah.
8 On that day the LORD will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem. On that day, the one among them who stumbles will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.
9 On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleading. They will look at me, the one they pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn.
11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be great, like the mourning for Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
12 The land will mourn, each family by itself: the family of David’s house by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of Nathan’s house by itself, and their women by themselves;
13 the family of Levi’s house by itself, and their women by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their women by themselves;
14 all the remaining families, each family by itself, and their women by themselves.”
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