Zechariah 10

• 1. Ask the LORD for rain in the spring, and he will give it. It is the LORD who makes storm clouds that drop showers of rain so that every field becomes a lush pasture.
• 2. Household gods give false advice, fortune-tellers predict only lies, and interpreters of dreams pronounce comfortless falsehoods. So my people are wandering like lost sheep, without a shepherd to protect and guide them.
• 3. "My anger burns against your shepherds, and I will punish these leaders. For the LORD Almighty has arrived to look after his flock of Judah; he will make them strong and glorious, like a proud warhorse in battle.
• 4. From Judah will come the cornerstone, the tent peg, the battle bow, and all the rulers.
• 5. They will be like mighty warriors in battle, trampling their enemies in the mud under their feet. Since the LORD is with them as they fight, they will overthrow even the horsemen of the enemy.
• 6. "I will strengthen Judah and save Israel; I will reestablish them because I love them. It will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the LORD their God, who will hear their cries.
• 7. The people of Israel will become like mighty warriors, and their hearts will be happy as if by wine. Their children, too, will see it all and be glad; their hearts will rejoice in the LORD.
• 8. When I whistle to them, they will come running, for I have redeemed them. From the few that are left, their population will grow again to its former size.
• 9. Though I have scattered them like seeds among the nations, still they will remember me in distant lands. With their children, they will survive and come home again to Israel.
• 10. I will bring them back from Egypt and Assyria and resettle them in Gilead and Lebanon. There won't be enough room for them all!
• 11. They will pass safely through the sea of distress, for the waves of the sea will be held back. And the waters of the Nile will become dry. The pride of Assyria will be crushed, and the rule of Egypt will end.
• 12. I will make my people strong in my power, and they will go wherever they wish by my authority. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

Zechariah 11

• 1. Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire may sweep through your cedar forests.
• 2. Weep, you cypress trees, for all the ruined cedars; the tallest and most beautiful of them are fallen. Weep, you oaks of Bashan, as you watch the thickest forests being felled.
• 3. Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their wealth is gone. Hear the young lions roaring, for their thickets in the Jordan Valley have been destroyed.
• 4. This is what the LORD my God says: "Go and care for a flock that is intended for slaughter.
• 5. The buyers will slaughter their sheep without remorse. The sellers will say, `Praise the LORD, I am now rich!' Even the shepherds have no compassion for them.
• 6. And likewise, I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land," says the LORD. "I will let them fall into each other's clutches, as well as into the clutches of their king. They will turn the land into a wilderness, and I will not protect them."
• 7. So I cared for the flock intended for slaughter--the flock that was oppressed. Then I took two shepherd's staffs and named one Favor and the other Union.
• 8. I got rid of their three evil shepherds in a single month. But I became impatient with these sheep--this nation--and they hated me, too.
• 9. So I told them, "I won't be your shepherd any longer. If you die, you die. If you are killed, you are killed. And those who remain will devour each other!"
• 10. Then I took my staff called Favor and snapped it in two, showing that I had revoked the covenant I had made with all the nations.
• 11. That was the end of my covenant with them. Those who bought and sold sheep were watching me, and they knew that the LORD was speaking to them through my actions.
• 12. And I said to them, "If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to." So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
• 13. And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potters "--this magnificent sum at which they valued me! So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potters in the Temple of the LORD.
• 14. Then I broke my other staff, Union, to show that the bond of unity between Judah and Israel was broken.
• 15. Then the LORD said to me, "Go again and play the part of a worthless shepherd.
• 16. This will illustrate how I will give this nation a shepherd who will not care for the sheep that are threatened by death, nor look after the young, nor heal the injured, nor feed the healthy. Instead, this shepherd will eat the meat of the fattest sheep and tear off their hooves.
• 17. Doom is certain for this worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! The sword will cut his arm and pierce his right eye! His arm will become useless, and his right eye completely blind!"

Zechariah 12

• 1. This message concerning the fate of Israel came from the LORD: "This message is from the LORD, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the spirit within humans.
• 2. I will make Jerusalem and Judah like an intoxicating drink to all the nearby nations that send their armies to besiege Jerusalem.
• 3. On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone, a burden for the world. None of the nations who try to lift it will escape unscathed.
• 4. "On that day, says the LORD, I will cause every horse to panic and every rider to lose his nerve. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will blind the horses of her enemies.
• 5. And the clans of Judah will say to themselves, `The people of Jerusalem have found strength in the LORD Almighty, their God.'
• 6. "On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a brazier that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure.
• 7. The LORD will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah.
• 8. On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the LORD who goes before them!
• 9. For my plan is to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
• 10. "Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on all the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.
• 11. The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the grievous mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
• 12. "All Israel will weep in profound sorrow, each family by itself, with the husbands and wives in separate groups. The family of David will mourn, along with the family of Nathan,
• 13. the family of Levi, and the family of Shimei.
• 14. Each of the surviving families from Judah will mourn separately, husbands and wives apart.

New Living Translation: 321 of 324 days.