Bible / Zacharias
Zacharias 9
Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation
1 The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus the rest thereof: for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of Israel is the Lord’s.
2 Emath also in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon: for they have taken to themselves to be exceeding wise.
3 And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together silver as earth, and gold as the mire of the streets.
4 Behold the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.
5 Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited.
6 And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride of the Philistines.
7 And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite.
8 And I will encompass my house with them that serve me in war, going and returning, and the oppressor shall no more pass through them: for now I have seen with my eyes.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy, O daughter of Jerusalem: BEHOLD THY KING will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.
10 And I will destroy the chariot out of Ephraim, and the horse out of Jerusalem, and the bow for war shall be broken: and he shall speak peace to the Gentiles, and his power shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers even to the end of the earth.
11 Thou also by the blood of thy testament hast sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water.
12 Return to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope, I will render thee double as I declare today.
13 Because I have bent Juda for me as a bow, I have filled Ephraim: and I will raise up thy sons, O Sion, above thy sons, O Greece, and I will make thee as the sword of the mighty.
14 And the Lord God shall be seen over them, and his dart shall go forth as lightning: and the Lord God will sound the trumpet, and go in the whirlwind of the south.
15 The Lord of hosts will protect them: and they shall devour, and subdue with the stones of the sling: and drinking they shall be inebriated as it were with wine, and they shall be filled as bowls, and as the horns of the altar.
16 And the Lord their God will save them in that day, as the flock of his people: for holy stones shall be lifted up over his land.
17 For what is the good thing of him, and what is his beautiful thing, but the corn of the elect, and wine springing forth virgins?
This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church
Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text. The Catechism uses modern verse numbers, so these are listed by chapter.
- Zacharias 9:9 in modern BiblesCCC 559
Read the Catechism and Fathers
- CCC 559 “How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and…”
“The words are these: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.”
Quoted in First Apology, St. Justin Martyr (c. AD 155), Chapter XXXV. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
“… twelve [prophets], that such would take place, in the following words: Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion; shout, and declare, daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King shall come to thee, righteous, bringing salvation, meek, and lowly, riding on an ass, and the foal of an ass.”
Quoted in Dialogue with Trypho, St. Justin Martyr (c. AD 160), Chapter LIII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
“that He was a man without comeliness, and liable to suffering; that He sat upon the foal of an ass;”
Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XIX. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1
A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.