Zechariah 12

This is a message that God gave concerning Israel. God, the one who created the sky, who formed the earth, and who breathed life into humanity, solemnly declares this:

“Listen! I am about to cause the city of Jerusalem to be like an intoxicating drink that makes all the nations around it stagger helplessly when their armies besiege Jerusalem and the region of Judah.

Then every nation on earth will come to attack Jerusalem, but I will make it like a solid rock that will badly hurt everyone that comes to attack it. \*

This is what I, God, declare: On that day I will cause all the horses of the enemy armies to panic and all their riders to go insane. I will watch over the people of Judah and protect them, but I will cause all the horses of those enemy nations to go blind.

Then the leaders of the clans of Judah will say to themselves that the people who live in Jerusalem are strong because God, the commander of the heavenly armies, is their God. \*

On that day I will make the leaders of the clans of Judah able to destroy their enemies completely and quickly. They will defeat all the surrounding peoples on every side of them, and the people of Jerusalem will live safely in their own city again.” \*

God will first rescue the people who live in the villages of Judah, so that the descendants of King David and the people who live in Jerusalem will not consider themselves more important than the rest of the people of Judah.

On that day God will protect the people who live in Jerusalem. Then even the weakest person among them will fight as powerfully as King David{, the great warrior,} once did. God will give the descendants of King David such great power that {as they lead the people,} it will seem as though God’s own angel is going ahead of them.

“At that time, I will set out to destroy all the nations that come to attack Jerusalem. \*

I will act very kindly toward the descendants of King David and the people who live in Jerusalem, and I will cause them to plead with me for mercy. They will look to me, the one whom they pierced, and they will mourn for me as strongly as parents mourn for an only son who has died. They will weep many tears for me, as many tears as people weep when a firstborn son dies.”

On that day the people in Jerusalem will mourn very loudly. They will mourn as loudly as the people did at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo{, where they grieved for King Josiah after he died in battle}. \*

All the people in the land will mourn, each clan by itself. The clan descended from King David will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. The clan descended from Nathan, {King David’s son,} will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves.

The clan descended from Levi will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. The clan descended from Shimei will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves.

All the clans that remain will each mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. \*