Zechariah 13

A Fountain of Cleansing

¹“On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.

²“And on that day,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will erase idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. I will remove from the land both the false prophets and the spirit of impurity that came with them. ³If anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother will tell him, ‘You must die, for you have prophesied lies in the name of the Lord.’ And as he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him.

⁴“On that day people will be ashamed to claim the prophetic gift. No one will pretend to be a prophet by wearing prophet’s clothes. ⁵He will say, ‘I’m no prophet; I’m a farmer. I began working for a farmer as a boy.’ ⁶And if someone asks, ‘Then what about those wounds on your chest?^a’ he will say, ‘I was wounded at my friends’ house!’

The Scattering of the Sheep

⁷“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,

the man who is my partner,”

says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.

“Strike down the shepherd,

and the sheep will be scattered,

and I will turn against the lambs.

⁸Two-thirds of the people in the land

will be cut off and die,” says the Lord.

“But one-third will be left in the land.

⁹I will bring that group through the fire

and make them pure.

I will refine them like silver

and purify them like gold.

They will call on my name,

and I will answer them.

I will say, ‘These are my people,’

and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”