World English Bible

Zechariah

Zechariah 1

1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Yahweh to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

2 Yahweh was sore displeased with your fathers.

3 Therefore say you to them, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: Return to me, says Yahweh of Hosts, and I will return to you, says Yahweh of Hosts.

4 Don't you be as your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus says Yahweh of hosts, Return you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.

5 Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?

6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as Yahweh of Hosts thought to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.

7 On the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Yahweh to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

8 I saw in the night, and, behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white.

9 Then said I, 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, These are they whom Yahweh has sent to walk back and forth through the earth.

11 They answered the angel of Yahweh who stood among the myrtle-trees, and said, We have walked back and forth through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sits still, and is at rest.

12 Then the angel of Yahweh answered, O Yahweh of Hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?

13 Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with good words, [even] comfortable words.

14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, Cry you, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

15 I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.

16 Therefore thus says Yahweh: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, says Yahweh of Hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.

17 Cry yet again, saying, Thus says Yahweh of Hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and Yahweh shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns.

19 I said to the angel who talked with me, What are these? He answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

20 Yahweh showed me four smiths.

21 Then said I, What come these to do? He spoke, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.