A Call to Return to the Lord
1 In the eighth month,
1in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet
2Zechariah, the son of
3Berechiah, son of
4Iddo, saying,
2
5"The LORD was very angry with your fathers.
3
Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts:
6Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and
7I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.
4
8Do not be like your fathers,
9to whom the former prophets cried out, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts,
10Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.' But
11they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the LORD.
5
Your fathers, where are they? And
12the prophets, do they live forever?
6
13But my words and my statutes, which I commanded
14my servants the prophets, did they not
15overtake your fathers? So they repented and said,
16As the LORD of hosts purposed to deal with us for
17our ways and
18deeds, so has he dealt with us."
A Vision of a Horseman
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet
19Zechariah, the son of
20Berechiah, son of
21Iddo, saying,
8
"I saw in the night, and behold,
22a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were
23red, sorrel, and white horses.
9
Then I said, 'What are these, my lord?'
24The angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what they are.'
10
So
25the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered,
26'These are they whom the LORD has sent to
27patrol the earth.'
11
And they answered
28the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said,
29'We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth
30remains at rest.'
12
Then
31the angel of the LORD said,
32'O LORD of hosts,
33how long will you
34have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these
35seventy years?'
13
And the LORD answered
36gracious and comforting words to
37the angel who talked with me.
14
So
38the angel who talked with me said to me, 'Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts:
39I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.
15
40And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are
41at ease;
42for while I was angry but a little,
43they furthered the disaster.
16
Therefore, thus says the LORD,
44I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy;
45my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and
46the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
17
Cry out again, Thus says the LORD of hosts:
47My cities shall again overflow with prosperity,
48and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again
49choose Jerusalem.'"
A Vision of Horns and Craftsmen
18 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold,
50four horns!
19
And I said to
51the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" And he said to me,
52"These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."
20
Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
21
And I said, "What are these coming to do?" He said,
53"These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come
54to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations
55who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."