1 In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the Word of the LORD came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the Prophet, saying,

² “The LORD has been very displeased with your fathers.

³ “Therefore, say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Turn to Me,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will turn to you,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁴ “Do not be as your fathers, to whom the former Prophets have cried, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “Turn now from your evil ways and from your wicked works!”’ But they would not hear or listen to Me,” says the LORD.

⁵ “Your fathers. Where are they? And do the Prophets live forever?

⁶ “But did not My Words and My Statutes which I Commanded by My servants the Prophets take hold of your fathers? And they returned, and said, ‘As the LORD of Hosts has determined to do to us according to our own ways, and according to our works, so has He dealt with us.’”’”

⁷ Upon the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, 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,

⁸ I saw by night and beheld a man riding upon a red horse. And he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a hollow. And there were red horses behind him, speckled and white.

⁹ Then I said, “O my lord, what are these?” And the Angel that talked with me, said to me, “I will show you what these are.”

¹⁰ And the man who stood among the myrtle trees, answered and said, “These are those whom the LORD has sent to go through the world.”

¹¹ And they answered the Angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have gone through the world. And behold, all the world sits still and is at rest.”

¹² Then the Angel of the LORD answered and said, “O LORD of Hosts! How long will You be unmerciful to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah with whom You have been displeased now these seventy years?”

¹³ And the LORD answered the Angel that talked with me with good Words and comfortable Words.

¹⁴ So, the Angel that communed with me said to me, “Cry out and speak, ‘Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “I am jealous over Jerusalem and Zion with a great zeal!

¹⁵ “And I am greatly angry against the careless heathen. For I was only angry a little, and they helped increase the affliction.”

¹⁶ ‘Therefore thus says the LORD: “I will return to Jerusalem with tender mercy. My House shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and a line shall be stretched upon Jerusalem.”’

¹⁷ “Cry, still, and speak, ‘Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “My cities shall still be comforted with plenty. The LORD shall still comfort Zion and shall still choose Jerusalem!”’”

¹⁸ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw. And behold, four horns.

¹⁹ And I said to the Angel that talked with me, “What are these?” And he answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

²⁰ And the LORD showed me four carpenters.

²¹ Then I said, “What are these coming to do?” And he answered, and said, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that a man dares not lift up his head. But these have come to terrify them, and to cast out the horns of the Gentiles which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.”