Zechariah 1

A Call to Return to the LORD

1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo:
2 “The LORD was very angry with your ancestors.
3 Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.
4 Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the LORD.
5 Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6 But did not my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors? “Then they repented and said, ‘The LORD Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as he determined to do.’ ”

The Man Among the Myrtle Trees

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, the son of Iddo.
8 During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.
9 I asked, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who was talking with me answered, “I will show you what they are.”
10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go throughout the earth.”
11 And they reported to the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have gone throughout the earth and found the whole world at rest and in peace.”
12 Then the angel of the LORD said, “LORD Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?”
13 So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.
14 Then the angel who was speaking to me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion,
15 and I am very angry with the nations that feel secure. I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the punishment.’
16 “Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there my house will be rebuilt. And the measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
17 “Proclaim further: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’ ”

Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

18 Then I looked up, and there before me were four horns.
19 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.”
20 Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
21 I asked, “What are these coming to do?” He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise their head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.”[a]

Cross References 44

  • 1. S Ezra 4:24; S Ezra 6:15
  • 2. S Ezra 5:1
  • 3. Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51
  • 4. ver 7; S Nehemiah 12:4
  • 5. S 2 Chronicles 36:16
  • 6. S Job 22:23
  • 7. Malachi 3:7; James 4:8
  • 8. S 2 Chronicles 36:15
  • 9. Zechariah 7:7
  • 10. S 2 Kings 17:13; S 2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalms 106:6; S Jeremiah 23:22
  • 11. S 2 Chronicles 24:19; Psalms 78:8; S Jeremiah 6:17; Jeremiah 17:23
  • 12. S Ezekiel 20:18; S Ezekiel 33:4
  • 13. S Isaiah 44:26
  • 14. S Deuteronomy 28:2; S Daniel 9:12; S Hosea 5:9
  • 15. Jeremiah 12:14-17; Lamentations 2:17
  • 16. Jeremiah 23:20; Jeremiah 39:16; S Jeremiah 44:17
  • 17. S ver 1
  • 18. Revelation 6:4
  • 19. Zechariah 6:2-7
  • 20. Zec 4:1,4-5; Zechariah 5:5
  • 21. S Daniel 7:16
  • 22. Zechariah 6:5-8
  • 23. Genesis 16:7
  • 24. S Isaiah 14:7
  • 25. S Psalms 6:3
  • 26. Psalms 40:11
  • 27. S Jeremiah 40:5
  • 28. S 2 Chronicles 36:21; S Daniel 9:2
  • 29. S Isaiah 35:4
  • 30. S Job 15:11
  • 31. Zechariah 4:1
  • 32. S Isaiah 26:11; S Joel 2:18; Zechariah 8:2
  • 33. Jeremiah 48:11
  • 34. S 2 Chronicles 28:9
  • 35. S Psalms 69:26; Psalms 123:3-4; S Amos 1:11
  • 36. Zechariah 8:3
  • 37. S Job 38:5; Zechariah 2:1-2
  • 38. S Ezra 1:1
  • 39. S Isaiah 40:1; Isaiah 51:3
  • 40. S Isaiah 14:1
  • 41. S Ezra 9:9; S Psalms 51:18; Isaiah 54:8-10; S Isaiah 61:4; Zechariah 2:12
  • 42. Amos 6:13
  • 43. S 1 Kings 22:11; Psalms 75:4
  • 44. S Psalms 75:10; S Isaiah 54:16-17; Zechariah 12:9

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. In Hebrew texts 1:18-21 is numbered 2:1-4.

Zechariah 1 Commentaries

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