Zechariah 12:1-14

This message is the word of the LORD to Israel. This is what the LORD says, who stretched out the skies, and laid the foundations of the earth, and put the human spirit within: “I will make Jerusalem like a cup of poison to the nations around her. They will come and attack Jerusalem and Judah. One day all the nations on earth will come together to attack Jerusalem, but I will make it like a heavy rock; anyone who tries to move it will get hurt. At that time I will confuse every horse and cause its rider to go crazy,” says the LORD. “I will watch over Judah, but I will blind all the horses of the enemies. Then the leaders of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD All-Powerful is their God.’ “At that time I will make the leaders of Judah like a fire burning a stack of wood or like a fire burning straw. They will destroy all the people around them left and right. But the people of Jerusalem will remain safe. “The LORD will save the homes of Judah first so that the honor given to David’s family and to the people of Jerusalem won’t be greater than the honor given to Judah. At that time the LORD will protect the people in Jerusalem. Then even the weakest of them will be strong like David. And the family of David will be like God, like an angel of the LORD in front of them. At that time I will go to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. “I will pour out on David’s family and the people in Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and mercy. They will look at me, the one they have stabbed, and they will cry like someone crying over the death of an only child. They will be as sad as someone who has lost a firstborn son. At that time there will be much crying in Jerusalem, like the crying for Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will cry, each family by itself: the family of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves, the family of Shimei by itself and their wives by themselves, and all the rest of the families by themselves and their wives by themselves.