Zechariah 1

1 In the eighth month of Darius’s second year, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: 2 “The Lord was fiercely angry with your fathers. 3 So tell them: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: Turn to me, and I will turn to you,’ says the Lord. 4 Do not be like your fathers. The former prophets charged them: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: Turn away from your evil ways and evil conduct.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to me,” says the Lord.

5 “Where are your fathers now? And do the prophets live forever? 6 But receive my words and practices — everything I command by my Spirit to my servants the prophets — which overtook your fathers.” Then the people answered, “Just as the Lord Almighty determined to do according to your ways and your conduct, so he has done to you.”

7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month — the month of Shebat — in Darius’s second year, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo. [a] 8 During the night I saw a man mounted on a red horse, standing between the two shadowed mountains. Behind him were red, gray, dappled, and white horses. [b]

9 I asked, “My lord, what are these?” The messenger who spoke with me said, “I will show you what they are.” [c] 10 The man standing between the mountains answered, “These are the ones the Lord sent to range over the earth.” 11 They answered the messenger of the Lord who stood between the mountains, “We have ranged over the whole earth, and look — all the earth is inhabited and at rest.” 12 Then the messenger of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, which you have disregarded for these seventy years?”

13 The Lord Almighty answered the messenger who spoke with me, giving him good and comforting words. 14 Then the messenger who spoke with me said, “Cry out: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I have been deeply jealous for Jerusalem and Zion. 15 I am fiercely angry with the nations that joined together against her. I was only a little angry, but they joined together to harm her.’ 16 So this is what the Lord says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with pity. My house will be rebuilt there,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and a measuring line will once again be stretched over Jerusalem.’”

17 The messenger who spoke with me said, “Cry out again: ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: Cities will once again overflow with good things. The Lord will again have mercy on Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”