CHAPTER 1

¹In the seventh month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying, ²“The LORD was very furious with your fathers. ³And you shall say to them, Thus said the LORD of Armies: Turn back to Me, said the LORD of Armies, that I may turn back to you, said the LORD of Armies. ⁴Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets called saying, Thus said the LORD of Armies: Turn back, pray, from your evil ways and from your evil acts. But they did not listen to Me, said the LORD. ⁵Your fathers, where are they?” “And the prophets, did they live forever?” ⁶“But My words and My statutes that I charged to My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers?” And they turned back and said, “As the LORD of Armies aimed to do to us according to our ways and according to our acts, so He has done with us.”

⁷On 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 Zechariah the prophet son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying, ⁸“I saw at night, and, look, there was a man riding on a bay horse, and he was standing among the myrtles that are by the deep, and behind him were bay, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹And I said, ‘What are these my lord?’ And the messenger speaking to me answered, ‘I shall show you what these are.’ ¹⁰And the man standing among the myrtles answered and said, ‘It is these that the LORD has sent to go about the earth.’ ¹¹And they answered the LORD’s messenger who was standing among the myrtles and they said, ‘We have gone about the earth, and, look, all the earth dwells tranquilly.’ ¹²And the LORD’s messenger answered and said, ‘O LORD of Armies, how long will You show no mercy to Jerusalem and to the towns of Judah against which You have been wrathful now seventy years?’ ¹³And the LORD answered the messenger who was speaking to me good words, comforting words. ¹⁴And the messenger who was speaking to me said to me, ‘Call out, saying, Thus said the LORD of Armies: I have been greatly zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. ¹⁵And I am very greatly furious with the nations resting quiet; as I was but a little furious yet they piled on the harm. ¹⁶Therefore, thus said the LORD, I have turned back in mercy to Jerusalem, and a building line shall be stretched over Jerusalem. My house shall be built in her.’” ¹⁷Call out again, saying, Thus said the LORD of Armies: “Again shall my towns spread out from bounty, and again shall the LORD comfort Zion, and again shall He choose Jerusalem.”