Then I cut the second staff “Binders” in two in order to annul the covenant of brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the Lord.’ Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies. ¹ 

These are the things you must do: Speak the truth, each of you, to one another. Practice true and righteous judgment in your courts. ¹ 

“Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ¹  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

Moreover, on that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy burden ¹  for all the nations, and all who try to carry it will be seriously injured; ²  yet all the peoples of the earth will be assembled against it.

as are those of Hamath also, which adjoins Damascus, and Tyre ¹  and Sidon, ²  though they consider themselves to be very wise.

The riders then agreed with the angel of the Lord, ¹  who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have been walking about on the earth, and now everything is at rest and quiet.”

Then I looked again and saw two women ¹  going forth with the wind in their wings (they had wings like those of a stork) and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky.

And they will be like warriors trampling the mud of the streets in battle. They will fight, for the Lord will be with them, and will defeat the enemy cavalry. ¹ 

Then I ¹  said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, forget it.” So they weighed out my payment – thirty pieces of silver. ² 

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.

And also on that day,” says the Lord who rules over all, “I will remove ¹  the names of the idols from the land and they will never again be remembered. Moreover, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.

Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,” says the Lord, “but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.”

Listen now, Joshua the high priest, both you and your colleagues who are sitting before you, all of you ¹  are a symbol that I am about to introduce my servant, the Branch. ² 

I will take away their abominable religious practices; ¹  then those who survive will become a community of believers in our God, ²  like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will be like the Jebusites.

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.

As for the stone ¹  I have set before Joshua – on the one stone there are seven eyes. ²  I am about to engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. ³ 

Indeed, he will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed in splendor, sitting as king on his throne. Moreover, there will be a priest ¹  with him on his throne and they will see eye to eye on everything.

It will happen in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds of the people ¹  in it will be cut off and die, but one-third will be left in it. ² 

I will remove ¹  the chariot from Ephraim and the warhorse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be removed. Then he will announce peace to the nations. His dominion will be from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River ²  to the ends of the earth.