Old Testament · Zechariah

Zechariah 1

A Call to Repentance

(Jeremiah 3:11–25; Hosea 14:1–3)

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

2The LORD was angry with your fathers with anger. 3And you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts^a: Return to me, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.

4Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings; but they did not hear, nor attend to me, declares the LORD.

5Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6But my words and my statutes^b, which I commanded^c my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they returned and said, As the LORD of hosts purposed to do to us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so he has done with us.

The Vision of the Horses

7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shevat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:

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

9And I said, What are these, my lord? And the angel that spoke with me said to me, I will show you what these are.

10And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD has sent to walk to and fro in the earth.

11And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro in the earth, and behold, all the earth sits still and is at rest.

12Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, the LORD of hosts, how long will you not have compassion on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?

13And the LORD answered the angel that spoke with me with good words, comforting words.

14And the angel that spoke with me said to me, Proclaim, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15And with great wrath I am angry against the nations that are at ease; for I was angry a little, and they helped for evil.

16Therefore thus says the LORD: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassions; my house shall be built in it, declares the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.

17Yet again proclaim, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with good; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.