the Fourth Week of Advent
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Read the Bible
Complete Jewish Bible
Zechariah 13
1 When that day comes, a spring will be opened up for the house of David and the people living in Yerushalayim to cleanse them from sin and impurity. 2 "When that day comes," says Adonai-Tzva'ot, "I will cut off the very names of the idols from the land, so that no one even remembers them any more. I will also expel the [false] prophets and the spirit of uncleanness from the land; 3 so that if anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother who brought him into the world will tell him, ‘You cannot continue to live, because you are speaking lies in the name of Adonai'; then his own father and mother who brought him into the world will stab him to death. 4 When that day comes, each one of the prophets will be shamed by his vision when he prophesies. He will stop wearing a hair cloak to deceive people; 5 and instead, he will say, ‘I'm no prophet, I just work the soil; since my youth I've only wanted to be an ordinary man.' 6 If someone asks him, ‘Then what are these gashes between your shoulders?' he will answer, ‘I got hurt at my friends' house.'
7 "Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me,"
says Adonai-Tzva'ot.
"Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the young ones.
8 In time, throughout that land," says Adonai,
"two-thirds of those in it will be destroyed —
they will die, but one-third will remain.
9 That third part I will bring through the fire;
I will refine them as silver is refined,
I will test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is my people'
and they will say, ‘Adonai is my God.'"
