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 Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying,

2 “The LORD was very angry with your ancestors.

3 So tell the people this is what the LORD of armies says: Return to Me, declares the LORD of armies, and I will return to you, says the LORD of armies.

4 Do not be like your ancestors, the earlier prophets called out to them saying, ‘This is what the LORD of armies says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices,’ but they did 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 My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, caught up with your ancestors, and they turned and said, ‘The LORD of armies has dealt with us according to our ways and actions, just as He planned.’”

The Vision of the Horsemen

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 Berechiah, son of Iddo.

8 I saw in the night, and there was a man riding a red horse standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine, with red, brown, and white horses behind him.

9 I said, “My lord, what are these,” The angel who talked with me said, “I will show you what they are.”

10 Then the man standing among the myrtle trees answered, “These are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.”

11 They reported to the angel of the LORD standing among the myrtle trees and said, “We have gone throughout the earth, and the whole world is at rest and in peace.”

12 Then the angel of the LORD said, “LORD of armies, how long will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, which You have been angry with these seventy years?”

13 So the LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.

14 Then the angel who talked with me said, “Proclaim this: This is what the LORD of armies says: I am extremely jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.

15 I am very angry with the nations that feel secure, because I was only a little angry, but they went too far with the destruction.

16 Therefore this is what the LORD says: I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy, My house will be rebuilt in it, declares the LORD of armies, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.

17 Proclaim again: This is what the LORD of armies says: My cities will again overflow with prosperity, the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.”

The Vision of the Horns and Craftsmen

18 Then I looked up and saw four horns.

19 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

20 Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.

21 I asked, “What are they coming to do?” He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so no one could raise his head, but these craftsmen have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations that lifted their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”