Zechariah 13

World English Bible 86 include this book

1 “In that day there will be a fountain opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

2 It will come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.

3 It will happen that when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in the LORD’s name;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies.

4 It will happen in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they won’t wear a hairy mantle to deceive,

5 but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’

6 One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says the LORD of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

8 It shall happen that in all the land,” says the LORD, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it.

9 I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

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1 place named in this chapter.

Where this was written

Jerusalem attested Same setting as Haggai.

When this was written

Traditions differ. Each position is shown rather than one asserted as settled.

Traditional: 520 BC–480 BC Zechariah
The whole book ascribed to the prophet of the return.
Critical: 520 BC–400 BC Zechariah and later hands
Chapters 1-8 are firmly dated; 9-14 differ in style and outlook and are usually placed later.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (520 BC–400 BC).

1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
600 BC–500 BC Daoism takes shape in China China
The teaching associated with Laozi, emphasising harmony with the natural order.
570 BC–495 BC Pythagoras Greece
Mathematician and mystic whose school treated number as the structure of reality.
563 BC–483 BC Life of Siddhartha Gautama India
The founder of Buddhism taught in the Ganges plain, roughly contemporary with the Judean exile.
550 BC–330 BC The Persian empire founded Persia
Cyrus and his successors ruled from the Aegean to the Indus, the largest empire the world had yet seen.
516 BC Second Temple completed Levant
The rebuilt temple in Jerusalem was finished under Persian authorisation.
509 BC The Roman republic founded Rome
The last king was expelled and Rome became a republic governed by elected magistrates.

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