Zechariah 1:1-21

1 In the eighth month in the second year of Da·ri´us the word of Yehowah occurred to Zech·a·ri´ah the son of Ber·e·chi´ah the son of Id´do the prophet, saying: 2 “Yehowah grew indignant at your fathers—very much so.

3 “And you must say to them, ‘This is what Yehowah of armies has said: “‘Return to me,’ is the utterance of Yehowah of armies, ‘and I shall return to you,’ Yehowah of armies has said.”’

4 “‘Do not become like your fathers to whom the former prophets called, saying: “This is what Yehowah of armies has said, ‘Return, please, from your bad ways and from your bad dealings.’”’

“‘But they did not listen, and they paid no attention to me,’ is the utterance of Yehowah.

5 “‘As for your fathers, where are they? And as for the prophets, was it to time indefinite that they continued to live? 6 However, as regards my words and my regulations that I commanded my servants, the prophets, did they not catch up with your fathers?’ So they returned and said: ‘According to what Yehowah of armies had in mind to do to us, according to our ways and according to our dealings, that is how he has done with us.’”

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, that is, the month She´bat, in the second year of Da·ri´us, the word of Yehowah occurred to Zech·a·ri´ah the son of Ber·e·chi´ah the son of Id´do the prophet, saying: 8 “I saw [in] the night, and, look! a man riding on a red horse, and he was standing still among the myrtle trees that were in the deep place; and behind him there were horses red, bright red, and white.”

9 And so I said: “Who are these, my lord?”

At that the angel who was speaking with me said to me: “I myself shall show you who these very ones are.”

10 Then the man who was standing still among the myrtle trees answered and said: “These are the ones whom Yehowah has sent forth to walk about in the earth.” 11 And they proceeded to answer the angel of Yehowah who was standing among the myrtle trees and to say: “We have walked about in the earth, and, look! the whole earth is sitting still and having no disturbance.”

12 So the angel of Yehowah answered and said: “O Yehowah of armies, how long will you yourself not show mercy to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, whom you have denounced these seventy years?”

13 And Yehowah proceeded to answer the angel who was speaking with me, with good words, comforting words; 14 and the angel who was speaking with me went on to say to me: “Call out, saying, ‘This is what Yehowah of armies has said: “I have been jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy. 15 With great indignation I am feeling indignant against the nations that are at ease; because I, for my part, felt indignant to only a little extent, but they, for their part, helped toward calamity.”’

16 “Therefore this is what Yehowah has said, ‘“I shall certainly return to Jerusalem with mercies. My own house will be built in her,” is the utterance of Yehowah of armies, “and a measuring line itself will be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’

17 “Call out further, saying, ‘This is what Yehowah of armies has said: “My cities will yet overflow with goodness; and Yehowah will yet certainly feel regrets over Zion and yet actually choose Jerusalem.”’”

18 And I proceeded to raise my eyes and see; and, look! there were four horns. 19 So I said to the angel who was speaking with me: “What are these?” In turn he said to me: “These are the horns that dispersed Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.”

20 Furthermore, Yehowah showed me four craftsmen. 21 At that I said: “What are these coming to do?”

And he went on to say: “These are the horns that dispersed Judah to such an extent that no one at all raised his head; and these others will come to set them trembling, to cast down the horns of the nations that are lifting up a horn against the land of Judah, in order to disperse her.”