I will signal for them and gather them, for I have already redeemed them; then they will become as numerous as they were before.

Then I spoke up, “Let a clean turban be put on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood nearby.

Therefore he told me, “These signify the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by strength and not by power, but by my Spirit,’ ¹  says the Lord who rules over all.”

“What are you, you great mountain? ¹  Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple ²  capstone with shoutings of ‘Grace! Grace!’ ³  because of this.”

by asking both the priests of the temple ¹  of the Lord who rules over all and the prophets, “Should we weep in the fifth month, ²  fasting as we have done over the years?”

The inhabitants of one will go to another and say, “Let’s go up at once to ask the favor of the Lord, to seek the Lord who rules over all. Indeed, I’ll go with you.”’

An oracle of the word of the Lord concerning the land of Hadrach, ¹  with its focus on Damascus: ²  The eyes of all humanity, ³  especially of the tribes of Israel, are toward the Lord,

The Ephraimites will be like warriors and will rejoice as if they had drunk wine. Their children will see it and rejoice; they will celebrate in the things of the Lord.

Those who buy them ¹  slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons the flock! May a sword fall on his arm and his right eye! May his arm wither completely away, and his right eye become completely blind!”

But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers? ¹  Then they paid attention ²  and confessed, ‘The Lord who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.’”

I asked, “What are these going to do?” He answered, “These horns are the ones that have scattered Judah so that there is no one to be seen. ¹  But the blacksmiths have come to terrify Judah’s enemies ²  and cut off the horns of the nations that have thrust themselves against the land of Judah in order to scatter its people.” ³ 

The Lord who rules over all will guard them, and they will prevail and overcome with sling stones. Then they will drink, and will become noisy like drunkards, ¹  full like the sacrificial basin or like the corners of the altar. ²