The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Zechariah 01
1 In the eighth month, in the second year
of Darius, Yahweh’s† word came to the
prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah,
the son of Iddo, saying,
2 “Yahweh was very displeased with
your fathers.
3 Therefore tell them, Yahweh of Armies
says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of
Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says
Yahweh of Armies.
4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom
the former prophets proclaimed, saying:
Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from
your evil ways and from your evil doings;’
but they didn’t 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 decrees, which
I commanded my servants the prophets,
didn’t they overtake your fathers?
“Then they repented and said, ‘Just as
Yahweh 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, Yahweh’s
word came to the prophet Zechariah the
son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
8 “I had a vision in the night, and behold,
‡ 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 withme saidtome,
“I will show you what these are.”
10 The man who stood among the myrtle
trees answered, “They are the ones
Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through
the earth.
11 They reported to Yahweh’s angel who
stood among the myrtle trees, and said,
“We have walked back and forth through
the earth, and behold, allthe earthis at rest
and in peace.
12 Then Yahweh’s angel replied, “O Yahweh
of Armies, 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 kind and comforting
words.
14 So the angel who talked with me
said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yahweh of
Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem
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 Yahweh says: “I have returned to
Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built
in it,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and a line
shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
17 “Proclaim further, saying, ‘Yahweh of
Armies says: “My cities will again overflow
with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort
Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.
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 Judah, Israel, and
Jerusalem.”
20 Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.
21 Then I asked, “What are these coming
to do?” He said, “These are the horns which
scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up
his head; but these have come to terrify
them, to cast down the horns ofthe nations
that lifted up their horn against the land of
Judah to scatter it.