Zechariah 10:1-12

The Lord will watch over Judah

1 Ask the Lord for rain in spring.

It is the Lord who makes the clouds and the storms.

He gives the rain to men.

He gives the plants of the field to everyone.

2 People ask idols for help,

but the idols do not speak true words.

Some people explain what a dream means.

But they do not speak true words.

The help that they give is not good.

So the people move from place to place like sheep.

They are not safe. They have no leaders.

3 ‘I am angry with the leaders.

I will cause them to be sorry.

Judah's people are mine,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘I will watch over them.

I will make them as strong as horses that are ready for war.

4 From Judah's descendants will come a strong leader.

He is like a strong stone at the corner of a building.

He is like a strong peg in a wall.

He is like a bow that is ready to shoot arrows.

Every strong ruler will come from Judah's descendants.

5 Together they will be like brave soldiers

who march through the mud in the streets of their enemies.

The Lord is with them and they will fight their enemies.

They will pull down the soldiers from their horses.

6 I will make Judah's people strong,

and I will make Israel's people become free.

I will bring them back to me,

because I am sorry for them.

I am their God,

and I will answer them.

It will be as if I had never turned away from them.

7 Israel's people will become like strong men.

They will be as happy as men that drink wine.

Their children will see their happy fathers

and so the children will be happy.

They will sing to the Lord.

8 I will cause my people to come to me and I will bring them all together.

I will buy them and I will make them free people.

And there will be as many people as there were before.

9 I will send them to foreign countries among foreign people.

But, in these far countries, they will remember me.

They and their children will not die.

They will return to Jerusalem.

10 I will bring my people back from Egypt,

and I will bring them here together from Assyria.

I will bring them to Gilead and to Lebanon.

There will not be enough room for them all.

11 And he will come to the difficult sea.

But it will be no trouble to him.

He will stop the waves in the sea.

He will make the river Nile dry.

Proud Assyria will have nothing to be proud about and

the power of Egypt's people will finish.’

12 ‘I will make my people strong.

They will obey me because they love my name.’