Zechariah 1:1-12

New King James Version

A Call to Repentance^(A)

1 In the eighth month ^(B)of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came ^(C)to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of ^(D)Iddo the prophet, saying, ² “The Lord has been very angry with your fathers. ³ Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return ^(E)to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. ⁴ “Do not be like your fathers, ^(F)to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(G)“Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the Lord.

“So they returned and said:

Vision of the Horses

⁷ On 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: ⁸ I saw by night, and behold, ^(J)a man riding on a red horse, and it stood among the myrtle trees in the hollow; and behind him were ^(K)horses: red, sorrel, and white. ⁹ Then I said, ^(L)“My lord, what are these?” So the angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”

¹⁰ And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, ^(M)“These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”

^11 (N)So they answered the Angel of the Lord, who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth is ^[a]resting quietly.”

The Lord Will Comfort Zion

¹² Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, ^(O)how long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You were angry ^(P)these seventy years?”