Zechariah 10 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Ask Yahweh for rain when the spring rains are due. Yahweh is the one who builds the thunderheads. He gives people the downpour, and green in every field.

The little household gods talk nonsense. The fortune tellers see lies. They report dreams that never happened and hand out comfort made of air. So the people wander off like sheep, worn down, because there is no shepherd.

My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will settle accounts with the he-goats who walk in front. Yahweh who commands armies, has come to look after his flock, the house of Judah, and he will make them his own proud horse in battle.

Out of Judah, the cornerstone. Out of Judah, the tent peg. Out of Judah, the battle bow. Out of Judah, every ruler, all of them together.

Together they will fight like men who cannot be stopped, treading the streets to mud under them. They will fight, because Yahweh is with them, and the riders on their horses will be shamed.

I will make the house of Judah strong and I will rescue the house of Joseph. I will bring them home, because I ache for them, and they will be as though I had never pushed them away, because I am Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.

Ephraim will fight like a soldier, and their hearts will lift as if they had been at the wine. Their children will watch and be glad. Their hearts will sing in Yahweh.

I will whistle for them and gather them in, because I have paid to get them back. They will be as many as they ever were.

Though I sowed them like seed among the nations, they will remember me out in those far places. They will stay alive, and their children with them, and they will come back.

I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them out of Assyria. I will walk them into Gilead and Lebanon until there is no room left for them.

He will cross the sea of their trouble and strike the waves flat. Every deep channel of the Nile will run dry. Assyria's pride will be pulled down, and the staff will be taken out of Egypt's hand.

I will make them strong in Yahweh, and they will walk everywhere in his name. This is what Yahweh says.