In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of
the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son
of Iddo, saying, “The LORD was very angry with your fathers.
Therefore say to them, Thus declares the LORD of hosts: Return to
me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD
of hosts. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets
cried out, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, Return from your evil ways
and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not hear or pay attention
to me, declares the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? And the
prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my statutes, which
I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your
fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the LORD of hosts purposed
to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”
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 Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo,
saying, “I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red
horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and
behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. Then I said, ‘What
are these, my lord?’ The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I
will show you what they are.’ So the man who was standing among the
myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the LORD has sent to
patrol the earth.’ And they answered the angel of the LORD who was
standing among the myrtle trees, and said, ‘We have patrolled the
earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.’ Then the angel
of the LORD said, ‘O LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy
on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been
angry these seventy years?’ And the LORD answered gracious and
comforting words to the angel who talked with me. So the angel who
talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I
am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I am
exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I
was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. Therefore,
thus says the LORD, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my
house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and the
measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. Cry out
again, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow
with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and again
choose Jerusalem.’”
And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! And I said
to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to
me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and
Jerusalem.” Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen. And I said,
“What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns that
scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have
come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who
lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
