1 The prophetic utterance of the word of Jehovah concerning Israel. Jehovah declared: »Who stretches forth the heavens? Who lays the foundation of the earth? Who forms the spirit of man within him?

2 »I will make Jerusalem a cup that causes trembling to the people in the nations nearby. Judah will also be attacked when they attack Jerusalem.

3 »It will happen in that day! I will make Jerusalem a heavy weight for all the people. All who lift it will be severely injured. All the nations of the earth will gather against her.«

4 »In that day,« said Jehovah, »I will strike every horse with terror and his rider with madness! I will watch the house of Judah. Every horse of the people will be struck with blindness.

5 »The people of Judah including the leaders will say in their hearts: The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength through Jehovah of Hosts their God.

6 »I will make the people of Judah like a pan of fire among wood and like a flaming torch among sheaves of grain. They will consume all the peoples on the right hand and on the left all around. The inhabitants of Jerusalem will again dwell in their own place, in Jerusalem.

7 »Jehovah will save the dwellings of Judah first. The glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be magnified above Judah.

8 »In that day Jehovah will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He that is feeble among them will be like David. For the house of David will be like God, like the angel of Jehovah before them.

9 »It will happen at that time. I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10 »I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of kindness and of supplication. They will look to the one whom they pierced; and they will mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son. There will be a bitter lamentation for him, like one who grieves for his first-born.

11 »That day will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddon Megiddo.

12 »And the land will mourn, every family by itself; 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 will mourn by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by themselves, and their wives by themselves;

14 »All the remaining families and their wives will mourn by themselves.