1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yehowah’s*“Yehowah” is Elohim’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “Yehowah” (all caps) in other translations. word came to Zechariyah the son of Berechiyah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 2 “Yehowah was very displeased with your fathers. 3 Therefore tell them: Yehowah of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yehowah of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yehowah of Armies. 4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yehowah of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yehowah. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers?

“Then they repented and said, ‘Just as Yehowah of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’” 7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, Yehowah’s word came to Zechariyah the son of Berechiyah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 8 “I had a vision in the night, and behold,†“Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection. a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses. 9 Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’”

The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”

10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones Yehowah has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”

11 They reported to Yehowah’s angel who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace.”

12 Then Yehowah’s angel replied, “O Yehowah of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Yeruwshalaim and on the cities of Yehudah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?”

13 Yehowah answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yehowah of Armies says: “I am jealous for Yeruwshalaim and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.” 16 Therefore Yehowah says: “I have returned to Yeruwshalaim with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says Yehowah of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Yeruwshalaim.”’

17 “Proclaim further, saying, ‘Yehowah of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yehowah will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Yeruwshalaim.”’”

18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns. 19 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?”

He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Yehudah, Israel, and Yeruwshalaim.”

20 Yehowah showed me four craftsmen. 21 Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?”

He said, “These are the horns which scattered Yehudah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Yehudah to scatter it.”