Zechariah 12 Reader-Friendly Bible: Purple Letter Edition

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◄ Zechariah 12 ►

Reader-Friendly Bible: Purple Letter Edition

1The burden of the word of the LORD of the prophecy concerning Israel. The LORD, Who stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him, declares: 2“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling that sends all the surrounding people reeling, when they shall be besieged - against both Judah and Jerusalem. 3And on that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations; any who try to move it shall injure themselves.

4“On that day”, says the LORD, “I will fill every horse with panic, and its rider with madness; and I will keep My watchful eyes upon Judah, and will strike every horse of the people with blindness. 5And the leaders of Judah shall say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong because the LORD Almighty is their God.’ 6In that day will I make the leaders of Judah like a flaming torch among dry kindling wood, and like a blaze in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the surrounding people, on the right hand and on the left; but Jerusalem shall remain secure in her own place. 7The LORD also shall first save the tents (homes) of Judah, that the glory of those of Jerusalem is not greater than those of Judah.

8On that day the LORD shall defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so that even the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David; and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the LORD before them. 9“On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10“And I will pour the Spirit of grace and supplications upon the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and they shall look upon Me, the One Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.”

Here the prophet Zechariah foretells the restoration of both Jew and gentile to God’s good graces. But though he first mentions this restoration, it is certain that they will first be brought to repentance for the sin of rejecting and crucifying the Messiah, and then to belief and faith in Him and that God will bestow upon them the blessing of re-establishing the possession of Canaan to the Jew.

If you, like the editor of this RFP Bible, find the switch in verse 10 from 1^st person (Me) to 3^rd person (Him) to be odd, you might find this excerpt (in italics) from the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary on Zech. 12:10 insightful: [“me … him—The change of person is due to Jehovah-Messiah speaking in His own person first, then the prophet speaking of Him. The Jews, to avoid the conclusion that He whom they have "pierced" is Jehovah-Messiah, who says, "I will pour out … spirit," altered "me" into "him,"”]

11“On that day the weeping in Jerusalem shall be as great as the mourning (for their righteous king Josiah when he was killed in the town of) Hadadrimmon, in the Valley of Megiddo. 12And the land shall mourn, each clan by itself; with the husbands and wives separate in their mourning in the houses of David, of Nathan; 13Of Levi, of Shimei apart; 14All the families that remain, every family apart, husbands and wives apart.”