Day 299 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Zechariah 11

1 Open thy doors, O Libanus, and let the fire devour thy cedars. 2 Let the pine howl, because the cedar has fallen; for the mighty men have been greatly afflicted: howl, ye oaks of the land of Basan; for the thickly planted forest has been torn down. 3 [There is] a voice of the shepherds mourning; for their greatness is brought low: a voice of roaring lions; for the pride of Jordan is brought down. 4 Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Feed the sheep of the slaughter; 5 which their possessors have slain, and have not repented: and they that sold them said, Blessed be the Lord; for we have become rich: and their shepherds have suffered no sorrow for them. 6 Therefore I will no longer have mercy upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord: but, behold, I will deliver up the men every one into the hand of his neighbour, and into the hand of his king; and they shall destroy the land, and I will not rescue out of their hand. 7 And I will tend the flock of slaughter in the land of Chanaan: and I will take for myself two rods; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Line; and I will tend the flock. 8 And I will cut off three shepherds in one month; and my soul shall grieve over them, for their souls cried out against me. 9 And I said, I will not tend you: that which dies, let it die; and that which falls off, let it fall off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of his neighbour. 10 And I will take my beautiful staff, and cast it away, that I may break my covenant which I made with all the people. 11 And it shall be broken in that day; and the Chananites, the sheep that are kept for me, shall know that it is the word of the Lord. 12 And I will say to them, If it be good in your eyes, give [me] my price, or refuse it. And they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the Lord said to me, Drop them into the furnace, and I will see if it is good [metal], as I was proved for their sakes. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the furnace in the house of the Lord. 14 And I cast away [my] second rod, [even] Line, that I might break the possession between Juda and Israel. 15 And the Lord said to me, Take yet to thee shepherd's implements belonging to an unskilful shepherd. 16 For, behold, I [will] raise up a shepherd against the land: he shall not visit that which is perishing, and he shall not seek that which is scattered, and he shall not heal that which is bruised, nor guide that which is whole: but he shall devour the flesh of the choice [ones], and shall dislocate the joints [of their necks]. 17 Alas for the vain shepherds that have forsaken the sheep! the sword [shall be] upon the arms of such a one, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be completely withered, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

Zechariah 12

1 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel; saith the Lord, that stretches out the sky, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. 2 Behold, I [will] make Jerusalem as trembling door-posts to all the nations round about, and in Judea there shall be a siege against Jerusalem. 3 And it shall come to pass in that day [that] I will make Jerusalem a trodden stone to all the nations: every one that tramples on it shall utterly mock at [it], and all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against it. 4 In that day, saith the Lord Almighty, I will smite every horse with amazement, and his rider with madness: but I will open mine eyes upon the house of Juda, and I will smite all the horses of the nations with blindness. 5 And the captains of thousands of Juda shall say in their hearts, We shall find for ourselves the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord Almighty their God. 6 In that day I will make the captains of thousands of Juda as a firebrand among wood, and as a torch of fire in stubble; and they shall devour on the right hand and on the left all the nations round about: and Jerusalem shall dwell again by herself, [even] in Jerusalem. 7 And the Lord shall save the tabernacles of Juda as at the beginning, that the boast of the house of David, and the pride of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, may not magnify themselves against Juda. 8 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the Lord shall defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the weak one among them in that day shall be as David, and the house of David as the house of God, as the angel of the Lord before them. 9 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and compassion: and they shall look upon me, because they have mocked [me], and they shall make lamentation for him, as for a beloved [friend], and they shall grieve intensely, as for a first-born [son]. 11 In that day the lamentation in Jerusalem shall be very great, as the mourning for the pomegranate grove cut down in the plain. 12 And the land shall lament in separate families, the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Symeon by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that are left, each family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

Zechariah 13

1 In that day every place shall be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for removal and for separation. 2 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, [that] I will utterly destroy the names of the idols from off the land, and there shall be no longer [any] remembrance of them: and I will cut off the false prophets and the evil spirit from the land. 3 And it shall come to pass, if a man will yet prophesy, that his father and his mother which gave birth to him shall say to him, Thou shalt not live; for thou hast spoken lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother who gave him birth shall bind him as he is prophesying. 4 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he prophesies; and they shall clothe themselves with a garment of hair, because they have lied. 5 And [one] shall say, I am not a prophet, for I am a tiller of the ground, for a man brought me up [thus] from my youth. 6 And I will say to him, What are these wounds between thine hands? and he shall say, [Those] with which I was wounded in my beloved house. 7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherds, and against the man [who is] my citizen, saith the Lord Almighty: smite the shepherds, and draw out the sheep: and I will bring mine hand upon the little ones. 8 And it shall come to pass, [that] in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts thereof shall be cut off and perish; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third [part] through the fire, and I will try them as silver is tried, and I will prove them as gold is proved: they shall call upon my name, and I will hear them, and say, This is my people: and they shall say, The Lord [is] my God.