Zechariah Chapter 12
Jerusalem becomes an immovable stone for the nations as the LORD pours out grace and mourning.
Zechariah 12 declares Jerusalem an immovable burdensome stone that will injure any nation trying to lift it, even as the LORD strikes attacking armies with confusion and defends the city's weakest defenders. The vision follows directly from the rejected shepherd of Zechariah 11, deepening the theme of a people under threat yet preserved.
The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel. Thus saith the Lord, who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundations of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man in him:
Behold I will make Jerusalem a lintel of surfeiting to all the people round about: and Juda also shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all people: all that shall lift it up shall be rent and torn, and all the kingdoms of the earth shall be gathered together against her.
In that day, saith the Lord, I will strike every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open my eyes upon the house of Juda, and will strike every horse of the nations with blindness.
And the governors of Juda shall say in their heart: Let the inhabitants of Jerusalem be strengthened for me in the Lord of hosts, their God.
In that day I will make the governors of Juda like a furnace of fire amongst wood, and as a firebrand amongst hay: and they shall devour all the people round about, to the right hand, and to the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place in Jerusalem.
And the Lord shall save the tabernacles of Juda, as in the beginning: that the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, may not boast and magnify themselves against Juda.
In that day shall the Lord protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that hath offended among them in that day shall be as David: and the house of David, as that of God, as an angel of the Lord in their sight.
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of prayers: and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son, and they shall grieve over him, as the manner is to grieve for the death of the firstborn.
In that day there shall be a great lamentation in Jerusalem like the lamentation of Adadremmon in the plain of Mageddon.
And the land shall mourn: families and families apart: the families of the house of David apart, and their women apart:
The families of the house of Nathan apart, and their women apart: the families of the house of Levi apart, and their women apart: the families of Semei apart, and their women apart.
All the rest of the families, families and families apart, and their women apart.