Zechariah 6:9-8:23
New Catholic Bible
The Present, a Promise for the Future[a]
The Coronation.[b] 9 The word of the Lord came to me: 10 Collect silver and gold from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, and go on the very same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. 11 Take the silver and the gold and make a crown, and set it upon the head of the high priest Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, 12 and say this to him: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Here is a man whose name is Branch. He will branch out from where he is, and he will build the temple of the Lord.
13 Yes, he will build the temple of the Lord, and, wearing the royal insignia, he will sit on his throne and govern. There will be a priest at his right hand, and peaceful harmony will exist between the two of them. 14 The crown will serve as a memorial in the temple of the Lord for Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. 15 And those who are now far off will come and work on the building of the temple of the Lord. Then you will realize that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. All this will happen if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord, your God.
Chapter 7[c]
Must I Continue to Do Penance? 1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Kislev. 2 [d]Bethel-sarezer sent Regem-melech and his men to entreat the favor of the Lord 3 [e]and to ask the priests in the house of the Lord, and the prophets, “Should I continue to mourn and to fast in the fifth month, as I have been doing for these many years?”
4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5 Say to all the people of the country and to the priests: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and the seventh month during these seventy years, was it truly for my sake that you fasted? 6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not eating and drinking for yourselves? 7 Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the prophets in the past, when Jerusalem was inhabited and enjoying peace, as were her surrounding towns, and when the Negeb and the foothills were inhabited?
8 This word of the Lord came to Zechariah: 9 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render fair judgments, and show kindness and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor. Do not plot evil in your heart against one another. 11 But they refused to listen; they defiantly turned their backs and stopped their ears so that they would not hear. 12 They were adamant in their refusal to accept the teaching and the law that the Lord of hosts had transmitted by his Spirit through the former prophets.
Therefore, the wrath of the Lord of hosts was aroused. 13 Since they refused to listen when he called to them, he in turn would not listen when they cried out to the Lord of hosts. 14 Rather, he scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations where they were strangers. Therefore, the land they left was desolate after their departure, and no one came or went. They had turned their pleasant land into a desert.
Chapter 8
Behold, I Will Save My People. 1 This word of the Lord of hosts came to me:
2 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
I am intensely jealous for Zion,
and I am filled with jealous wrath for her.
3 Thus says the Lord:
I will return to Zion,
and I will dwell in the heart of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem will be called the faithful city,
and the mountain of the Lord of hosts
will be called the holy mountain.
4 The Lord of hosts says this:
Old men and old women once again will sit
in the squares of Jerusalem,
each one leaning on a stick
because of old age.
5 And her streets will be filled
with boys and girls at play.
6 The Lord of hosts says this:
Even if this seems impossible
to the remnant of this people in those days,
will it also seem impossible to me?
says the Lord.
7 The Lord of hosts says this:
I will rescue my people
from the countries of the east
and from the countries of the west.
8 I will bring them back
to dwell in Jerusalem.
They will be my people,
and I will be their God,
a God of faithfulness and justice.
9 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Take heart, all you who today hear the promises from the words spoken by the prophets who were present when the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid for the rebuilding of the temple. 10 Before that time, men were not paid their wages, nor was any recompense offered for the work of the animals. In addition, those who went out or came in were provided with no protection from the enemy, for I had set every man against his neighbor.
11 However, now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in former days, says the Lord of hosts. 12 Now they will sow in peace. The vine will bring forth its fruit, the soil will yield its produce, and the heavens will provide their moisture. All these things I will endow to the remnant of this people. 13 Just as you once were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so now I will save you, and you will be regarded as a blessing. Do not be afraid. Do not lose heart.
14 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Whereas I resolved to bring disaster upon you when your ancestors provoked me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I did not relent, 15 so now I have resolved in these days to show favor to Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Do not be afraid.
16 These are the things I require you to do: speak truthfully to one another, render judgments at your gates that reflect honesty and peace, 17 and do not plot evil against another in your heart, or love perjury. For all these are practices that I hate, says the Lord.
18 The Saving Fast. The word of the Lord came to me: 19 Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fasts of the fifth, the seventh, and the tenth months, shall be periods of joy and gladness and of cheerful festivals for the house of Judah. Therefore, love truth and peace.[f]
20 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In the future, peoples will come, the inhabitants of many cities. 21 Those who dwell in one city will approach those of another and say, “Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself will go.” 22 Many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days, ten men from nations of every language will grasp a Jew by the edge of his garment and say, “Permit us to go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”
Footnotes
- Zechariah 6:9 This part of the Book, the last that really belongs to the prophet Zechariah, focuses on the theme of the rebuilding of the temple and the national restoration that has already begun. It begins, however, with a promise of a more universal, but also more distant salvation. It is already foreseen, but for a time that remains still undetermined, that the Lord will save his people once and for all and that he will reign from Jerusalem over the entire earth. This is a perspective that the second part of the Book will broaden considerably.
- Zechariah 6:9 This prophecy retains its value, to the extent that it looks beyond the immediate moment. It foretells the work of salvation to be accomplished by Jesus the Messiah, an authentic descendant of David by way of Zerubbabel (see Mt 1:12-13; Lk 3:27) and a True Priest, even the One High Priest.
- Zechariah 7:1 The time is November, 518 B.C. Twenty years have passed since the first group of Jews made the return.
- Zechariah 7:2 Bethel-sarezer: a city about twenty km north of Jerusalem. The prophets: Haggai and Zechariah.
- Zechariah 7:3 The fast of the fifth month was for the anniversary of the destruction of Jerusalem; the fast of the seventh month was for the assassination of Gedaliah (see Jer 41:1-2).
- Zechariah 8:19 The added fasts of the fourth and tenth months were for the opening of the breach in the walls of Jerusalem and for the beginning of the siege (see 2 Ki 25:1-4).
