Getting Rid of Idols and False Prophets
1 In the future there will be a fountain, where David's descendants and the people of Jerusalem can wash away their sin and guilt.
2 The Lord All-Powerful says:
When that time comes, I will get rid of every idol in the country, and they will be forgotten forever. I will also do away with their prophets and those evil spirits that control them. 3 If any such prophets ever appear again, their own parents must warn them that they will die for telling lies in my name—the name of the Lord. If those prophets don't stop speaking, their parents must then kill them with a sword.
4 Those prophets will be ashamed of their so-called visions, and they won't deceive anyone by dressing like a true prophet. 5 Instead, they will say, “I'm no prophet. I've been a farmer all my life.”
6 And if any of them are asked why they are wounded, they will answer, “It happened at the house of some friends.”
A Wounded Shepherd and Scattered Sheep
7 The Lord All-Powerful said:
My sword, wake up! Attack
my shepherd and friend.
Strike down the shepherd!
Scatter the little sheep,
and I will destroy them.
8 Nowhere in the land
will more than a third of them
be left alive.
9 Then I will purify them
and put them to the test,
just as gold and silver
are purified and tested.
They will pray in my name,
and I will answer them.
I will say, “You are my people,”
and they will reply,
“You, Lord, are our God!”
1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
2 ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. 3 And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. 4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive: 5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. 6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
7 ¶ Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. 8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.