1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:
2Yahweh was greatly angry with your fathers.
3So you shall say to them: Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Return to me, declares Yahweh of hosts, and I will return to you, says Yahweh of hosts.
4Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets called out, saying: Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds — but they did not listen or pay attention to me, declares Yahweh.
5Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets — do they live forever?
6But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets — did they not overtake your fathers? And they returned and said, “Just as Yahweh of hosts planned to do to us, according to our ways and according to our deeds, so he has done to us.”
7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, that is, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:
8I saw during the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtle trees that were in the ravine, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
9Then I said, “What are these, my lord?” And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
10And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are the ones whom Yahweh has sent to patrol the earth.”
11And they answered the angel of Yahweh who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is dwelling secure and at rest.”
12Then the angel of Yahweh answered and said, “Yahweh of hosts, how long will you have no compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been indignant these seventy years?”
13And Yahweh answered the angel who was speaking with me with good words, comforting words.
14Then the angel who was speaking with me said to me, “Call out, saying: Thus says Yahweh of hosts: I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great zeal.
15But with great anger I am angry against the nations that are at ease; for I was angry a little, while they made the disaster worse.”
16Therefore thus says Yahweh: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, declares Yahweh of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
17Call out again, saying: Thus says Yahweh of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.
18Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, four horns.
19And I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20Then Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.
21And I said, “What are these coming to do?” And he said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations that lifted up a horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
Open in the interactive reader →