Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout in triumph, Daughter Jerusalem! Look, your King is coming to you; he is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Look, the Lord has proclaimed to the ends of the earth, ‘Say to Daughter Zion: Look, your salvation is coming, his wages are with him, and his reward accompanies him.’
He has wrecked his temple as if it were merely a shack in a field, destroying his place of meeting. The Lord has abolished appointed festivals and Sabbaths in Zion. He has despised king and priest in his fierce anger.
How the Lord has overshadowed Daughter Zion with his anger! He has thrown down Israel’s glory from heaven to earth. He did not acknowledge his footstool in the day of his anger.
this is the word the Lord has spoken against him: Virgin Daughter Zion despises you and scorns you; Daughter Jerusalem shakes her head behind your back.
when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodguilt from the heart of Jerusalem by a spirit of judgement and a spirit of burning.
Your land is desolate, your cities burned down; foreigners devour your fields right in front of you – a desolation, like a place demolished by foreigners.
Then you will say within yourself, “Who fathered these for me? I was deprived of my children and unable to conceive, exiled and wandering – but who brought them up? See, I was left by myself – but these, where did they come from? ” ’
One thousand will flee at the threat of one, at the threat of five you will flee, until you remain like a solitary pole on a mountaintop or a banner on a hill.
Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all the words of the royal spokesman, whom his master the king of Assyria sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke him for the words that the Lord your God has heard. Therefore offer a prayer for the surviving remnant.” ’