Dual PanelZechariah's commission
1IN the eighth month of the second year of Darius, this word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo:
2The LORD was exceedingly angry with your forefathers.
3Say therefore to the people: These are the words of the LORD of Hosts: If you return to me, I shall turn back to you, says the LORD of Hosts.
4Do not be like your forefathers, who heard the prophets of old proclaim, “These are the words of the LORD of Hosts: Turn back from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” They refused to listen and pay heed to me, says the LORD.
5Your forefathers, where are they now? And the prophets, do they live for ever?
6But did not the warnings and the decrees with which I charged my servants the prophets overtake your forefathers? They repented and said, “The LORD of Hosts has fulfilled his intention, and has dealt with us as our lives and as our deeds deserved.”
Eight visions with their interpretations
7ON the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo.
8In the night I had a vision in which I saw a man among the myrtles in a hollow; he was on a bay horse and behind him were other horses, bay, sorrel, and white.
9“What are these, sir?” I asked, and the angel who was talking with me answered, “I shall show you what they are.”
10Then the man standing among the myrtles said, “They are those whom the LORD has sent to range throughout the world.”
11They reported to the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtles: “We have ranged through the world, and the whole world is quiet and at peace.”
12The angel of the LORD then said, “LORD of Hosts, how long will you withhold your compassion from Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, on which you have vented your wrath these seventy years?”
13In answer the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was talking with me.
14This angel then said to me: Announce that these are the words of the LORD of Hosts: I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion,
15but I am deeply angry with the nations that are enjoying their ease, because, although my anger was only mild, they aggravated the suffering.
16Therefore these are the words of the LORD: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house is to be rebuilt there, says the LORD of Hosts, and the measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.
17Proclaim once more: These are the words of the LORD of Hosts: My cities will again brim with prosperity; once again the LORD will comfort Zion, once again he will make Jerusalem the city of his choice.
18I looked up and saw four horns.
19I asked the angel who talked with me what they were, and he answered, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20The LORD then showed me four smiths.
21I asked what they were coming to do, and he said, “Those horns scattered Judah so completely that no one could hold up his head; but these smiths have come to rout them, overthrowing the horns which the nations had raised against the land of Judah to scatter its people.”