1 In the eighth month, a in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet b Zechariah, the son of c Berechiah, son of d Iddo, saying, 2 e “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: f Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and g I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 h Do not be like your fathers, i to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, f Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But j they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And k the prophets, do they live forever? 6 l But my words and my statutes, which I commanded m my servants the prophets, did they not n overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, o As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for p our ways and p deeds, so has he dealt with us.”
7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet b Zechariah, the son of c Berechiah, son of d Iddo, saying, 8 “I saw in the night, and behold, q a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were r red, sorrel, and white horses. 9 Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ s The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ 10 So q the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, t ‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to u patrol the earth.’ 11 And they answered s the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, u ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth v remains at rest.’ 12 Then s the angel of the Lord said, w ‘O Lord of hosts, w how long will you x have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these y seventy years?’ 13 And the Lord answered z gracious and comforting words to s the angel who talked with me. 14 So s the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: a I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15 b And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are c at ease; d for while I was angry but a little, e they furthered the disaster. 16 Therefore, thus says the Lord, f I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; g my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and h the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17 Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: i My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, j and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again k choose Jerusalem.’”
18 [1] And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, l four horns! 19 And I said to s the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, l “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” 20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. 21 And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, l “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come m to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations n who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
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