Zecharia Chapters

1 | • ¹In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo:

²“The Lord was very angry with your ancestors. ³Then you will tell them these words of the Lord Sabaoth: ‘Return to me and I will return to you.’ ⁴Do not be like your ancestors, whom the earlier prophets warned, reiterating to them the Lord Sabaoth’s words: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your wicked deeds.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me. The Lord asks you, ⁵‘Where are your ancestors now? Those prophets also died; ⁶but my words and decrees, entrusted to my servants, the prophets, overtook your ancestors. They repented and confessed: “The Lord Sabaoth has treated us just as he had determined to do, according to our ways and deeds.”’”

The Visions

⁷On the twenty-fourth of Shebat, the eleventh month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, in the following manner.

⁸In a vision at night, I saw a man riding a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine, and behind him were red, brown, and white horses. ⁹I asked, “What are these, my lord?” The angel I was talking to answered, “You will know.” ¹⁰The man standing among the myrtle trees spoke, “They are those whom the Lord sent to patrol the earth.” ¹¹These then reported to the Lord’s angel standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the whole earth and found it peaceful and tranquil.”

¹²The angel of the Lord spoke, “O Lord of hosts, how long will you be without mercy for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah which you have afflicted in anger these seventy years?” ¹³The Lord replied with comforting words to the angel who spoke to me. ¹⁴This angel then turned to me and said, “Proclaim this word which the Lord Sabaoth speaks: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, ¹⁵but I am very angry with complacent nations. At first, I was only slightly angry with Jerusalem, but they worsened things.’ ¹⁶Therefore the Lord says: ‘I will turn again with mercy to Jerusalem, where my house will be rebuilt and the measuring line stretched.’”

Then the Lord Sabaoth said, ¹⁷“Proclaim this as well: ‘My towns will once more overflow with prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion and make Jerusalem his favorite.’”

The Second Vision

2 | ¹I raised my eyes and saw four horns. ²I asked the angel who spoke to me, and he answered, “These horns are the nations that scattered Judah and Jerusalem.” ³The Lord then showed me four blacksmiths, and I asked, “What are they coming to do?”

⁴He answered, “Here are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one dared raise his head. But these blacksmiths have come to strike down the power of the nations that scattered the people of Judah.”

The Third Vision

⁵Raising my eyes again, I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. I asked, “Where are you going?” ⁶He answered, “I will measure Jerusalem to find its width and length.” ⁷As the angel who spoke to me came forward, another angel met him ⁸and said, “Run and tell this to that young man: ‘Jerusalem will remain unwalled because of its multitude of people and livestock.’ ⁹For this is the word of the Lord: I, myself, will be around her like a wall of fire, and also within her, in glory.”

¹⁰“Come, come! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord, to all those he scattered to the four winds of heaven. ¹¹“Come, escape O Zion, you who dwell in Babylon.” ¹²For thus the Lord Sabaoth says after his glory sent me to condemn the nations that have plundered you, “Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye. ¹³Look, I will raise my hand against those nations, and their slaves will plunder them.” Thus, you will know that the Lord Sabaoth has sent me.

A Call To the Daughter of Zion

•  ¹⁴“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for I am about to come, I shall dwell among you,” says the Lord.

¹⁵“On that day, many nations will join the Lord and be my people, but my dwelling is among you.” ¹⁶The people of Judah will be for the Lord as his portion in his holy land. He will choose Jerusalem again.

¹⁷Keep still in the Lord’s presence, for he comes, having risen from his holy dwelling.”

Fourth Vision: The Messiah Comes Soon

3 | • ¹He showed me the high priest Joshua, standing before the angel of the Lord. At Joshua’s right side stood Satan, ready to accuse him. ²But the angel of the Lord said to Satan, “May the Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem—may he rebuke you! Is not this man a burning brand snatched from the fire?”

³Clad in filthy garments, Joshua stood before the angel, ⁴who said to those in front of him, “Take off his filthy garments.” Then, turning to Joshua, he said, “See, I have taken away your guilt. Now, I will clothe you with rich garments.” ⁵He added, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him as the angel of the Lord looked on.

⁶The angel of the Lord gave Joshua this assurance: ⁷“Listen to this word of the Lord Sabaoth: ‘If you walk in my ways and heed my charge, you shall rule my house and keep my courts, and I will give you free access among those standing here. ⁸Listen further, O high priest Joshua, and your associates who join in council with you: I will bring my servant, the Branch. ⁹See, I am setting (before Joshua) a stone with seven eyes. I will engrave an inscription on it and remove the guilt of this land in a single day. ¹⁰On that day, you will invite one another under your vines and fig trees.’ This is what the Lord Sabaoth says.”

The Fifth Vision

4 | • ¹The angel who talked with me returned and shook me, as one does to wake another from sleep. ²He asked, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on top. On the stand are seven lamps and seven pipes to feed them. ³There are also two olive trees, one at the bowl's right and another at the left.” ⁴I asked the angel, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵He asked, “Don’t you know what they are?” I answered, “No, my lord.”

^10b He explained, “These seven are the eyes of the Lord which range throughout the earth.”

¹¹I asked the angel, “What are these two olive trees to the right and left of the lampstand?” (¹²Before he could reply, I asked again, “What are these two extensions of the olive trees, which are emptying the golden oil through the two golden pipes?”) ¹³His reply was a question. “Don’t you know what these are?” I answered, “No, my lord.” ¹⁴He said, “These are the two anointed with fresh oil, who serve the Lord of the whole earth.”

⁶This is a word of the Lord for Zerubbabel, “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit.”

⁷“What are you, O mighty mountains? You will be leveled before Zerubbabel. He will quarry, from you to the last stone which crowns the temple amid shouts of ‘blessing, blessing on it!’”

⁸The word of the Lord then came to me, ⁹“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands also shall finish it. (Then you will know that the Lord Sabaoth has sent me to you.) ¹⁰Perhaps the beginning seems a small thing to you, yet you will rejoice on that day to see the crowning stone in the hands of Zerubbabel.”

The Sixth Vision

5 | ¹Again, I raised my eyes and saw a flying scroll. ²He asked me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “A flying scroll, thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

³He told me, “This is the curse throughout the earth. On one side, it is written that every thief shall be banished; on the other, everyone who swears falsely shall be expelled. ⁴I will send it out to the house of the thief, as well as to the house of anyone who swears falsely. It will lodge there and destroy the house —timber, stone, and everything.

The Seventh Vision

⁵Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said, “Look up, and see what this is that is coming forth.” ⁶I asked, “What is it?” He answered, “This is a bushel container. This is the guilt of the people throughout the land.” ⁷The lead cover was lifted, and there, sitting inside, was a woman. ⁸“This is wickedness,” he said and thrust the woman inside the bushel, stopping the opening with the lead cover.

⁹I looked up and saw two winged women coming; their wings were like that of a stork. As they lifted the bushel into the air, ¹⁰I asked the angel speaking to me, “Where are they taking the bushel?” ¹¹He answered, “To Babylonia, to build a temple for it and set it down on a plinth.”

The Eighth Vision

6 | ¹Once more, I raised my eyes and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains of bronze. ²Harnessed to the first chariot were red horses, to the second, black horses, ³to the third, white horses, and the fourth, spotted horses; all of them strong. ⁴I asked the angel, who was talking with me, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵The angel replied, “These are the four winds of heaven, going forth, after presenting themselves before the Lord of the whole earth. ⁶The chariot with the black horses is going to the north country, and the white ones are going after them, but the spotted ones are going to the south country.

⁷All these strong ones are scattering; they have sought permission to walk about, over the earth.” The Lord had said, ‘Go! Walk over the earth!’ So they are doing so.” ⁸Then he cried out to me, “Look, those have just gone to the land of the north, and they will set my spirit at rest in the land of the north.”

⁹The word of the Lord came to me, ¹⁰“Take offerings from the returned captives, from the hands of Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and go this very day to the house of Josiah, Zephaniah’s son, where they have arrived from Babylon. ¹¹Take silver and gold and have crowns made, which you will set on the head of the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak. ¹²Repeat to him these words of the Lord Sabaoth: ‘Here is the man whose name is Branch. From where he is, he will branch out and build the temple of the Lord. ¹³ He will build the temple of the Lord, which will be his glory. He will sit and rule upon his throne. A priest will sit at his right, and there will be harmony between both.’ ¹⁴As for the crowns, they will remain in the temple of the Lord as a memorial of what Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah, Zephaniah’s son, have done. ¹⁵Those from afar will help build the temple of the Lord, and you will know that the Lord Sabaoth has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God.”

7 | ¹On the fourth day of the ninth month, in the fourth year of Darius, the king, ²the people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, with their men, to win the favor of the Lord; ³and to question the priests of the house of the Lord, God of hosts, and the prophets, “Must we mourn and fast in the fifth month as we have done these many years?”

The True Religion

•  ⁴And the word of the Lord, God of hosts, came to me: ⁵“Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me—for me, indeed? ⁶Were you not those who decided to eat and to drink or not to do so?

⁷Remember the message that the Lord proclaimed through earlier prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and the surrounding region when the Negeb and the western foothills were settled.

(⁸Again the word of the Lord came to Zechariah) ⁹Render proper judgment; be kind and merciful to each other. ¹⁰Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor; do not plot evil in your heart against one another.

¹¹But they refused to listen and stubbornly turned their backs, stopping their ears. ¹²They made their hearts hard, as diamonds, so as not to hear the law, or the words that the Lord, the God of hosts, spoke by his spirit, through the earlier prophets. ¹³Then the Lord, God of hosts, in his great anger, proclaimed that, just as they had not listened when he called to them, so when they cried to him, he would not listen. ¹⁴The Lord said he would scatter them, as in a whirlwind, among nations they did not know, and the land behind them would be devastated without anyone passing through it. In that way, a pleasant land was made desolate.”

8 | • ¹The word of the Lord, the God of hosts, was directed to me this way: ²“I am intensely jealous for Zion, stirred by burning anger for her sake. ³The Lord says: I will return to Zion and live in her midst. Jerusalem shall be called the city of faithfulness and the mountain of holiness.”

⁴The Lord, God of hosts, speaks, “Old men and women will again sit in the squares, each with a stick in hand on account of their great age. ⁵The squares of the city will be filled with girls and boys playing.”

⁶The Lord, God of hosts, declares, “If that seems impossible in the eyes of those who have returned from exile, will it be impossible for me as well?”—word of the Lord.

⁷The Lord, God of hosts, says, “See, I am going to save my people, ⁸bringing them from the east and the west; and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I shall be their God, in truth and justice.”

⁹The Lord, God of hosts, declares, “In these days, you have just heard the words of the prophets because, on this day, the foundation stone is laid for the reconstruction of the temple. Now, do not be discouraged. ¹⁰Before that time, there was no compensation for man or animal, nor was there any relief from adversity for those who came and went, because I had pitted everybody—each one—against everyone else. ¹¹But from now on, I will deal differently with this people.”

¹²The Lord says, “I am sowing peace. The vine will give its fruit, the earth its produce, the heavens its dew, and I will provide all these things to the remnant of this people.

¹³So it will happen, just as you were a curse among the nations, now I will save you, Judah and Israel, and make you a blessing. Have no fear, and let your hands be strong!”

¹⁴This is what the Lord, God of hosts, says: “Just as I resolved to do you harm because your fathers angered me and I did not relent, ¹⁵so now, these days, I am determined to deal kindly with Jerusalem and Judah. Have no fear! ¹⁶You must speak the truth to one another; let those who judge give peace through honest sentences ¹⁷and do not plot evil in your heart against one another. Refrain from false oaths, for it is what I detest”—word of the Lord.

¹⁸The word of the Lord came to me, saying: ¹⁹“This is what you will say for my sake: From now on, the fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will be days of joy, happy feast days. Only be peacemakers and sincere people.”

²⁰The Lord, the God of hosts, speaks, “Peoples will come from other nations, people from great cities. ²¹The inhabitants of one town will talk with those of another and say: ‘Come, let us go and implore the favor of the Lord, and I, too, will seek the Lord.’ ²²Many great peoples and powerful nations will seek the Lord, God of hosts, in Jerusalem and pray to him.”

²³The Lord, the God of hosts, assures you, “In those days, ten men of different languages spoken in various lands will take hold of a Jew by the hem of his garment and say: We, too, want to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

Second Part of the Book

9 | • An oracle:

 ¹Word of the Lord. The Lord dwells in the land of Hadrach and Damascus, for the cities of Aram belong to him, as do all the tribes of Israel, ²and Hamath as well, on its border, and Tyre and Sidon, the people who do good business. ³Tyre built herself a stronghold and piled up silver like dust and gold like the mud in the street. ⁴But the Lord will take away her possessions and throw down her power on the sea, and she will perish by fire.

⁵Ashkelon will see and be afraid; Gaza, too, will tremble, and Ekron, too, for her hope will fade. The king will disappear from Gaza, and Ashkelon will be without inhabitants. ⁶People of low birth will occupy Ashdod. I will put an end to the pride of the Philistines. ⁷I shall take the meat with blood from their mouth and their unclean food from between their teeth. Only a remnant of them will be left, and they will become like a clan among the Judeans. The people of Ekron will be like the Jebusites at present. ⁸I shall camp, as a guard, near my house to protect it from all who come and go. No longer shall an oppressor crush them now, for I know of their affliction.

Your King Comes, Riding On a Donkey

•  ⁹Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!

Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem!

For your king is coming, just and victorious,

humble and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁰No more chariots in Ephraim or horses in Jerusalem,

for he will do away with them.

The warrior’s bow shall be broken when he dictates peace to the nations.

He will reign from sea to sea

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for you, for the sake of your Covenant sealed with blood, I shall release your prisoners from the ancient cistern. ¹²The prisoners who wait in expectation will return to you, O Zion; today, I declare that I will repay you double for your exile. ¹³I shall bend my bow—Judah—and Ephraim shall be my arrow. I shall send your sons, O Zion, against the Greeks! For me, you shall be a warrior’s sword.

¹⁴The Lord will appear above them, his arrows flashing like lightning. He will sound his horn and come in a storm from the south. ¹⁵The Lord, God of hosts, will protect them; they will triumph; and trample the wicked. They will drink blood like wine and be filled with it, like the bowls of the drink offering, like the horns of an altar.

¹⁶On that day, the Lord, their God, will save and pasture them like a flock. ¹⁷How happy! How beautiful it will be! The grain will make young men flourish and new wine, the maidens!

Trust In the Lord

10 | ¹Ask from the Lord, the spring rain; the Lord, who makes the lightning, will send rain showers and make grass sprout in each one’s field.

²The home idols utter empty words, and diviners have false visions and dreams that foretell illusions and offer empty comfort. ³This is why the people stray, like sheep without a shepherd. Against these shepherds, my anger is aroused, and I will punish the leaders.

When the Lord of hosts visits his flock, the nation of Judah, he will make it his proud warhorse. ⁴He will provide the host and the spear, the bow in battle, and all the leaders. ⁵They will be like warriors trampling mud in battle. They will fight, recalling that the Lord is with them, and rout those on horses.

⁶“I will strengthen the nation of Judah and save the descendants of Joseph. I will bring them back, for I have compassion on them; and they will be as if I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord, their God, who hears their cry.

⁷Ephraim’s men will be like heroes and feel joyful, warmed by wine. Their children will rejoice on seeing it; their hearts will delight in the Lord.

⁸The Lord says: I shall whistle and gather them together, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as numerous as before. ⁹Then, I shall spread them among the nations, but they will remember me from the most distant lands. There, they shall raise their children, who will return.

¹⁰I shall bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I shall give them, again, the land of Gilead and Lebanon, but these will not suffice for them. 11 They will pass through the sea of Egypt, and the depths of the Nile will be dried up. Then, the arrogance of Assyria will be cast down, and Egypt will no longer have a king. ¹²I shall strengthen them, says the Lord, and they shall advance confidently in my name.”

11 | ¹Open your gateways, Lebanon, to let fire devour your cedars. ²Lament, cypresses, for the cedar has fallen. The majestic ones have been brought low. Wail, the oaks of Bashan, part of the impenetrable forest, have been cut down. ³The sighs of the shepherds reecho because their beautiful plain has been ravaged. The young lions’ roar reechoes because the fruitful valley of the Jordan is laid waste.

The Example of the Good Shepherd

•  ⁴The Lord, my God, said to me: “Pasture the sheep to be slaughtered, ⁵for their buyers slay them and get away with it, whereas those who sell them say: ‘Praised be the Lord! I am rich!’ And their shepherds hardly give them a thought. ⁶The Lord says: I shall no longer give a thought to the inhabitants of this land, and I am handing over each one to the power of his shepherd; although their king may oppress the land, I shall not rescue these people from their power.”

⁷So, I became the shepherd of the sheep to be slaughtered and provided myself with two staffs—one I called Favor and the other, Bonds. I then pastured my flock, ⁸doing away with three leaders in one month. I lost patience with them, and they, for their part, were disgusted with me. ⁹So I said, “No longer shall I shepherd you: whatever is to die, let it die; and let what is to perish, perish; and let those who are left devour each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰Then I took and broke my staff Favor, to break the Covenant I had made with all nations. ¹¹It was broken off that day; and the sheep merchants who watched knew it was the Lord who had spoken.

¹²I told them, “If you agree, give me my wages; otherwise, let it go.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. ¹³And the Lord said to me, “Throw it into the treasury, this splendid sum at which they valued me!” So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the treasury in the Lord’s house.

¹⁴I then snapped my second staff, Bonds, in two, doing away with the friendship between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then the Lord said to me, “Take another disguise, one that is fitting for a foolish shepherd; ¹⁶for I am going to raise up another shepherd, who will care nothing for lost sheep, nor will he search for strays, or bind up the injured, and pasture those that survive. No, but he will eat the fat and tear off their hoofs.”

¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons his flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm wither, and his right eye is blind!

The Final Battle

12 | •  ¹An oracle. This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Word of the Lord, who spread out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth and formed humans with inner spirit:

²“See, I am making of Jerusalem a cup that will send the nations reeling; it will happen when Jerusalem is besieged.

³On that day, I shall make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations around her. All the nations will be united against her, and all who try to lift the rock will be badly injured.”

⁴The Lord says: “On that day, I will make every horse wild with fright, every rider demented. All the horses of the nations will be blinded. But I will watch over Judah; ⁵and the leaders of the clans of Judah will say to themselves: ‘The strength of the inhabitants of Jerusalem comes from the Lord their God.’

⁶On that day, I will make the leaders of the clans of Judah like a fire in a woodland and a flaming torch among the sheaves. They will devour all the nations around them, right and left, while Jerusalem will continue to hold its site.

⁷The Lord will first save the towns and villages of Judah so that David’s people and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not feel more important than the rest of Judah.

⁸On that day, the Lord will strengthen the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the weaklings among them shall be like David, and David’s people, who lead them, will be like God, like an angel of the Lord.

⁹On that day, I will see to the destruction of all the nations that came against Jerusalem.

¹⁰I will pour out a spirit of love and supplication on the family of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They will look at the one pierced and mourn for him, as for an only child, weeping bitterly, as for a firstborn. ¹¹The mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

¹²Each family will mourn individually: the family of David by themselves, and their wives separately; the family of Nathan by themselves, and their wives separately; ¹³the family of Levi by themselves, and their wives separately; the family of Shimei by themselves and their wives separately ¹⁴and the same with the other families, each family by themselves and their wives separately.

13 | •  ¹On that day, a spring will be opened for the family of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse themselves of sin and blasphemy.

The Lord, God of hosts, says: 2 On that day, I will wipe out the names of idols from the land, and never again will they be mentioned. ³I will also remove the prophets and their unclean spirits and expel them from the land. If a prophet does prophesy, his parents, father, and mother will tell him: “You shall live no longer, for you uttered lies in the name of the Lord.” His own father and mother will stab him when he prophesies.

⁴On that day, the prophets will be ashamed of their prophetical visions and no longer wear a prophet’s garment of hair to deceive. ⁵Instead, they will say: “I am not a prophet; I am a farmer, and the land has owned me since my youth.” ⁶And if anyone asks him, "What are these wounds on your hands?” He will answer: “With these, I was wounded in my friend’s house.”

Final Persecution

•  ⁷“Sword, awake, and strike my shepherd, the man who is near me!” says the Lord, God of hosts. “Strike the shepherd and let the flock be scattered!” The Lord threatens, “I will turn against the little ones, ⁸and in all the land, two-thirds shall be destroyed and one-third left. ⁹This third shall be cleansed by fire; I shall refine them, as silver is refined; I shall test them, as gold is tested. They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘They are my people,’ and they shall say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Another Description of the Final Battle

14 | •  ¹The day of the Lord will come when people will divide spoils in your midst. ²I will let all the nations come against Jerusalem to attack it. The city will be taken and houses pillaged, women violated. Half of the city will be deported, but the rest will not be removed. ³Then the Lord will go forth and fight against the nations, as he does on the day of battle. ⁴On that day, his feet will rest on the Mount of Olives, facing Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two, from east to west, by a deep valley, leaving half of the mountain to the north and half, to the south. ⁵You will flee through my mountain valley, for it will extend as far as Azel. You will flee, as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and the Lord will come, and all his holy ones with him.

⁶On that day, there will be no cold or frost. ⁷It will be a unique day, known to the Lord, without day or night; when evening comes, there will still be light.

⁸On that day, living water will flow from Jerusalem, half to the sea in the east and half to the west; it will never dry up in summer or winter. ⁹The Lord will be king of all the earth. The Lord will be alone that day, and only his name.

¹⁰All the land will be turned into a plain, from Geba to Rimmon in the Negeb, but Jerusalem shall be outstanding on its heights, from the Benjamin Gate to the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the royal wine press. ¹¹Its people shall no longer fear any disaster. Jerusalem shall be inhabited and secure.

¹²And this is how the Lord will punish all the nations that made war on Jerusalem: each one’s flesh will rot even as he stands, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, their tongue in their mouths. ¹⁵A similar plague shall strike the horses, mules, camels and donkeys, and all the animals in their camps. ¹³On that day, the Lord will cause great panic among them: they will take hold of one another and attack one another, ¹⁴while the men of Judah fight in Jerusalem. The neighboring nations' wealth, such as gold, silver, and garments, will be left in great quantities there.

¹⁶The survivors of all the nations that fought against Jerusalem will come, year by year, to worship the Lord, God of hosts, and celebrate the feast of the Tabernacles. ¹⁷If any people of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, they will have no rain. ¹⁸If the Egyptian people do not go up and take part, they, too, will be afflicted with the plague destined for those who do not go up to celebrate the feast of the Tabernacles. ¹⁹That shall be the punishment of Egypt and of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the feast of the Tabernacles.

²⁰On that day, even the horses' bells shall be inscribed: “Consecrated to the Lord.” ²¹The cooking pots of the temple will be as sacred as the bowls of offerings used for the altar, and even the ordinary cooking pots of the people of Jerusalem and Judah will be consecrated to the Lord, God of hosts. So everyone who offers sacrifice may use them for cooking. Still more: from that day, there will no longer be merchants in the house of the Lord, God of hosts.