A Call to Return to the Lord

¹In the eighth month, ain the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet bZechariah, the son of cBerechiah, son of dIddo, saying, ²e“The Lord was very angry with your fathers. ³Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: fReturn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and gI will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. ⁴hDo not be like your fathers, ito whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, fReturn from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But jthey did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. ⁵Your fathers, where are they? And kthe prophets, do they live forever? ⁶lBut my words and my statutes, which I commanded mmy servants the prophets, did they not novertake your fathers? So they repented and said, o‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for pour ways and pdeeds, so has he dealt with us.’”

A Vision of a Horseman

⁷On 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 bZechariah, the son of cBerechiah, son of dIddo, saying, ⁸“I saw in the night, and behold, qa man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were rred, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ sThe angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ ¹⁰So qthe man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, t‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to upatrol the earth.’ ¹¹And they answered sthe angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, u‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth vremains at rest.’ ¹²Then sthe angel of the Lord said, w‘O Lord of hosts, whow long will you xhave no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these yseventy years?’ ¹³And the Lord answered zgracious and comforting words to sthe angel who talked with me. ¹⁴So sthe angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: aI am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. ¹⁵bAnd I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are cat ease; dfor while I was angry but a little, ethey furthered the disaster. ¹⁶Therefore, thus says the Lord, fI have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; gmy house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and hthe measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. ¹⁷Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: iMy cities shall again overflow with prosperity, jand the Lord will again comfort Zion and again kchoose Jerusalem.’”

A Vision of Horns and Craftsmen

¹⁸1 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, lfour horns! ¹⁹And I said to sthe angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, l“These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ²⁰Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. ²¹And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, l“These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come mto terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations nwho lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”