Zec 13 | EE | STEP | ‘On that day, something will be like water that comes up from the ground. And it will clean away the sin from the family of David. It will clean away the sin from the people in Jerusalem.

Zechariah 13

The LORD takes away the sin of the people

1 ‘On that day, something will be like water that comes up from the ground. And it will clean away the sin from the family of David. It will clean away the sin from the people in Jerusalem.

2 On that day, I will remove the names of false gods from the country’, says the LORD Almighty. ‘Everyone will forget them. I will remove all the false prophets. And I will remove the bad spirit that is not holy.

3 And if anyone appears as a prophet again, his father and his mother will say to him, “You must die. You do not speak true words. The LORD has not spoken to you.” Then they will kill him.

4 On that day, every prophet will be ashamed that he was ever a prophet. He will not put on the clothes of a prophet that they make from hair. Then people will not know that he is a prophet.

5 He will say, “I am not a prophet. I am a farmer. From the time that I was a boy, I have worked on the land.”

6 If someone asks him, “Who cut your body?” he will answer, “My friends cut me when I was at their house.”’

Kill the shepherd and the sheep will run away

7 ‘Attack my shepherd with a sharp knife.

Attack the man that is next to me’,

says the LORD Almighty.

‘Kill the shepherd and then the sheep will run away.
Then I will attack the young sheep.

8 In the whole country’, says the LORD,

‘two thirds of the people will die.
But one third will still be living there.

9 I will bring these people through fire.

As men clean silver in the fire, so I will clean them.

As men test gold in the fire, so I will test them.

They will speak my name and I will answer them.
I will say, “They are my people.”
They will say, “The LORD is our God.”’