Zechariah 8:1-Zechariah 9:17 - Yahweh's Promise To Jerusalem

¹ And the word of LORD of hosts came [to me], saying, ² Thus says LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. ³ Thus says LORD: I am returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem shall be called The city of truth, and the mountain of LORD of hosts, The holy mountain. ⁴ Thus says LORD of hosts: There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand for very age. ⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets of it. ⁶ Thus says LORD of hosts: If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes? says LORD of hosts. ⁷ Thus says LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country. ⁸ And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.

⁹ Thus says LORD of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who were in the day that the foundation of the house of LORD of hosts was laid, even the temple, that it might ¹⁰ For before those days there was no wage for man, nor any wage for beast, nor was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men each one against his neighbor. ¹¹ But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as in the former days, says LORD of hosts. ¹² For [there shall be] the seed of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. ¹³ And it shall come to pass that, as ye were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and ye shall be a blessing. Fear not. Let your hands be strong. ¹⁴ For thus says LORD of hosts: As I thought to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, says LORD of hosts, and I did not relent, ¹⁵ so again I have thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not. ¹⁶ These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates. ¹⁷ And let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no FALSE oath. For all these are things that I hate, says LORD.

¹⁸ And the word of LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ¹⁹ Thus says LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth [month], and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah, joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth ²⁰ Thus says LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, and the inhabitants of many cities. ²¹ And the inhabitants of one [city] shall go to another, saying, Let us go speedily to entreat the favor of LORD, and to seek LORD of hosts. I will go also. ²² Yea, many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of LORD. ²³ Thus says LORD of hosts: In those days, ten men shall take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they shall take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.

¹ The burden of the word of LORD upon the land of Hadrach, and Damascus its resting-place (for the eye of man and of all the tribes of Israel is toward LORD), ² and also Hamath, which borders on it, Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise. ³ And Tyre built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets. ⁴ Behold, LORD will dispossess her, and he will smite her power in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. ⁵ Ashkelon shall see it, and fear, Gaza also, and shall be greatly pained, and Ekron, for her expectation shall be put to shame. And the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. ⁶ And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. ⁷ And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth. And he also shall be a remnant for our God, and he shall be as a chieftain in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. ⁸ And I will encamp the army around my house, that none pass through or return, and no oppressor shall pass through them any more. For now I have seen with my eyes.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king comes to thee. He is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon a donkey, even upon a colt the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰ And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off. And he shall speak peace to the nations. And his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of t ¹¹ As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have set free thy prisoners from the pit in which is no water. ¹² Turn you back to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will render double to thee. ¹³ For I have bent Judah for me. I have filled the bow with Ephraim. And I will stir up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and will make thee as the sword of a mighty man. ¹⁴ And LORD shall be seen over them. And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning. And lord LORD will blow the trumpet, and will go with whirlwinds of the south. ¹⁵ LORD of hosts will defend them. And they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling-stones. And they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine, and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar. ¹⁶ And LORD their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people, [as] for the stones of a crown, lifted on high over his land. ¹⁷ For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.