1 An oracle: the word of the LORD about Israel. The LORD declares, he who spreads out the heavens, lays the earth's foundation and shapes the spirit of man within him:
2 I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling; and Judah too will be caught up in the siege against Jerusalem.
3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the peoples; anyone who tries to lift it will be badly cut, and every nation of the earth will gather against her.
4 On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with terror and every rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah, but I will strike every horse of the peoples blind.
5 The chiefs of Judah will say to themselves, "The people of Jerusalem are my strength, through the LORD of hosts their God."
6 On that day I will make the chiefs of Judah like a fire pan in a woodpile, like a burning torch among sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them, right and left, while Jerusalem stays settled in her own place, in Jerusalem.
7 The LORD will rescue the tents of Judah first, so that the honor of David's house and the honor of Jerusalem's inhabitants will not be raised above Judah.
8 On that day the LORD will be a shield around the people of Jerusalem; the one who stumbles among them will be like David on that day, and the house of David like God, like the angel of the LORD at their head.
9 On that day I will set out to destroy every nation that attacks Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplication, and they shall look on me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn.
11 On that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
12 The land will mourn, clan by clan, each apart: the clan of David's house apart and their wives apart; the clan of Nathan's house apart and their wives apart;
13 the clan of Levi's house apart and their wives apart; the clan of the Shimeites apart and their wives apart;
14 and all the clans that remain, each clan apart and their wives apart.