Zechariah 1

1In the eighth month of the second year of Darius’s reign, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: 2The LORD was very angry with your ancestors. 3So tell them, “The LORD of Armies says this: Return to me, declares the LORD of Armies, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Armies.” 4Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets called out, “The LORD of Armies says this: Turn back from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the LORD. 5Your ancestors, where are they now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6But my words and my decrees, the ones I commanded my servants the prophets to speak, did they not catch up with your ancestors? Then they repented and said, “The LORD of Armies has dealt with us as our ways and our deeds deserved, just as he planned to do.”

7On the twenty-fourth day of Shebat, the eleventh month, in the second year of Darius’s reign, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: 8I saw a vision in the night: there was a man mounted on a red horse. He stood among the myrtle trees in the ravine, and behind him were red, sorrel and white horses. 9I asked, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who talked with me answered, “I will show you what they are.” 10Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “These are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” 11They reported to the angel of the LORD, who stood among the myrtle trees: “We have patrolled the whole earth, and all of it is still and at rest.” 12Then the angel of the LORD said, “LORD of Armies, how long will you hold back your compassion from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which you have been angry with these seventy years?” 13And the LORD answered the angel who talked with me with good and comforting words. 14Then the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim this: ‘The LORD of Armies says this: I am deeply jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15And I am very angry with the nations that feel so secure. I was only a little angry with my people, but they made the disaster worse. 16Therefore the LORD says this: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion. My house will be rebuilt in it, declares the LORD of Armies, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’ 17Proclaim this as well: ‘The LORD of Armies says this: My cities will once again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’”

18Then I looked up, and I saw four horns. 19I asked the angel who talked with me what they were. He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.” 20Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. 21I asked, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “Those are the horns that scattered Judah so completely that no one could raise their head. But these craftsmen have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations that raised their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.”