Zechariah 6-7

New Living Translation

Four Chariots

6 Then I looked up again and saw four chariots coming from between two bronze mountains. ² The first chariot was pulled by red horses, the second by black horses, ³ the third by white horses, and the fourth by powerful dappled-gray horses. ⁴ “And what are these, my lord?” I asked the angel who was talking with me.

⁵ The angel replied, “These are the four spirits^[a] of heaven who stand before the Lord of all the earth. They are going out to do his work. ⁶ The chariot with black horses is going north, the chariot with white horses is going west,^[b] and the chariot with dappled-gray horses is going south.”

⁷ The powerful horses were eager to set out to patrol the earth. And the Lord said, “Go and patrol the earth!” So they left at once on their patrol.

⁸ Then the Lord summoned me and said, “Look, those who went north have vented the anger of my Spirit^[c] there in the land of the north.”

The Crowning of Jeshua

⁹ Then I received another message from the Lord: ¹⁰ “Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah will bring gifts of silver and gold from the Jews exiled in Babylon. As soon as they arrive, meet them at the home of Josiah son of Zephaniah. ¹¹ Accept their gifts, and make a crown from the silver and gold. Then put the crown on the head of Jeshua^[d] son of Jehozadak, the high priest. ¹² Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Here is the man called the Branch. He will branch out from where he is and build the Temple of the Lord. ¹³ Yes, he will build the Temple of the Lord. Then he will receive royal honor and will rule as king from his throne. He will also serve as priest from his throne,^[e] and there will be perfect harmony between his two roles.’

¹⁴ “The crown will be a memorial in the Temple of the Lord to honor those who gave it—Heldai,^[f] Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah^[g] son of Zephaniah.”

¹⁵ People will come from distant lands to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. And when this happens, you will know that my messages have been from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. All this will happen if you carefully obey what the Lord your God says.

A Call to Justice and Mercy

7 On December 7^[h] of the fourth year of King Darius’s reign, another message came to Zechariah from the Lord. ² The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech,^[i] along with their attendants, to seek the Lord’s favor. ³ They were to ask this question of the prophets and the priests at the Temple of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies: “Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction,^[j] as we have done for so many years?”

⁴ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me this message in reply: ⁵ “Say to all your people and your priests, ‘During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn,^[k] was it really for me that you were fasting? ⁶ And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves? ⁷ Isn’t this the same message the Lord proclaimed through the prophets in years past when Jerusalem and the towns of Judah were bustling with people, and the Negev and the foothills of Judah^[l] were well populated?’”

⁸ Then this message came to Zechariah from the Lord: ⁹ “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.

¹¹ “Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. ¹² They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them.

¹³ “Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ¹⁴ As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”