First Vision: The Horsemen

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo: ⁸ In the night I saw a man mounted on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the shadows,^[a] and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.^{(A) 9} Then I said, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who spoke with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.”^{(B) 10} So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, “They are those whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.”^{(C) 11} Then they spoke to the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and the whole earth remains at peace.”^{(D) 12} Then the angel of the Lord said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?”^{(E) 13} Then the Lord replied with gracious and comforting words to the angel who spoke with me.^{(F) 14} So the angel who spoke with me said to me, “Proclaim this message: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am very zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion,^{(G) 15} and I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease, for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse.^{(H) 16} Therefore, thus says the Lord: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.^{(I) 17} Proclaim further: Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”^(J)

⁴ John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,^{(A) 5} and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and freed^[a] us from our sins by his blood ⁶ and made us a kingdom, priests serving^[b] his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.^(B)

So it is to be. Amen.^(C)

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.^(D)

A Vision of Christ

⁹ I, John, your brother who share with you the persecution and the kingdom and the endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.^{[c](E) 10} I was in the spirit^[d] on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet^{(F) 11} saying, “Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

¹² Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands,^{(G) 13} and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest.^{(H) 14} His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire;^{(I) 15} his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.^{(J) 16} In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.^(K)

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last^{(L) 18} and the Living One. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever, and I have the keys of Death and of Hades.^{(M) 19} Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. ²⁰ As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.^(N)

The Return of the Unclean Spirit

⁴³ “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it returns, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”^(A)

The True Kindred of Jesus

⁴⁶ While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him.^{(B) 47} Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”^{[a] 48} But to the one who had told him this, Jesus^[b] replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” ⁴⁹ And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”^(C)