Zechariah 1:1-21
1 In the eighth month in the second year of Da·riʹus+ the word of Jehovah occurred to Zech·a·riʹah+ the son of Ber·e·chiʹah* the son of Idʹdo+ the prophet, saying:
2 “Jehovah grew indignant at YOUR fathers—very much so.+
3 “And you must say to them, ‘This is what Jehovah of armies* has said: “‘Return to me,’+ is the utterance of Jehovah* of armies, ‘and I shall return to YOU,’+ Jehovah* of armies has said.”’
4 “‘Do not become like YOUR fathers+ to whom the former prophets called,+ saying: “This is what Jehovah* 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 Jehovah.
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 Jehovah 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 Sheʹbat, in the second year of Da·riʹus,+ the word of Jehovah occurred to Zech·a·riʹah+ the son of Ber·e·chiʹah* the son of Idʹdo+ 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 Jehovah has sent forth to walk about in the earth.”*+
11 And they proceeded to answer the angel of Jehovah 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 Jehovah answered and said: “O Jehovah 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 Jehovah 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 Jehovah 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 Jehovah has said, ‘“I shall certainly return to Jerusalem with mercies.+ My own house will be built in her,”+ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies, “and a measuring line itself will be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’+
17 “Call out further, saying, ‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “My cities will yet overflow with goodness;+ and Jehovah 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, Jehovah 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.”+
Footnotes
^ “Jehovah of armies.” Heb., Yehwahʹ tseva·ʼohthʹ. This expression occurs 53 times in Zechariah.
^ See App 1C §2.
^ See App 1C §2.
^ See App 1C §2.
^ “Berechiah.” Heb., Be·rekh·yaʹhu, as in 1Ch 6:39; 1Ch 15:17; 2Ch 28:12.
^ “A man.” Heb., ʼish.
^ Or, “in the abyss.” Heb., bam·metsu·lahʹ; Lat., in pro·funʹdo; T, “Babel (Babylon).”
^ “My lord.” Heb., ʼadho·niʹ; Gr., kyʹri·e; Lat., doʹmi·ne.
^ Or, “the messenger.” Heb., ham·mal·ʼakhʹ; Gr., ho agʹge·los; Lat., anʹge·lus.
^ Or, “in the land.” Heb., ba·ʼaʹrets.
^ “Judah,” MSyVg; LXX, “Jehovah.”
