A Plea for Repentance

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius,(A) the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah(B) son of Berechiah, son of Iddo: “The Lord was extremely angry with your ancestors. So tell the people: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Return to Me”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts. Do not be like your ancestors; the earlier prophets proclaimed to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds.(C) But they did not listen or pay attention to Me”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Where are your ancestors now? And do the prophets live forever? But didn’t My words and My statutes that I commanded My servants the prophets overtake your ancestors? They repented and said: As the Lord of Hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so He has dealt with us.”(D)

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The people change

In the eighth month in the second year of Darius, the Lord’s word came to Zechariah the prophet, Berechiah’s son and Iddo’s grandson:

The Lord was terribly angry with your ancestors.
But you must say to the people,
    The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims: Return to me,
    says the Lord of heavenly forces,
        and I will return to you, says the Lord of heavenly forces.
Don’t be like your ancestors to whom the former prophets preached:
    The Lord of heavenly forces proclaims: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds.
        But they didn’t listen;
            they didn’t draw near to me.
So where are your ancestors?
        Do the prophets live forever?
In fact, didn’t my words and laws,
        which I gave to my servants, the prophets,
            pursue your ancestors?
And then the people changed their hearts, and they said,
    The Lord of heavenly forces has treated us according to
    what we have done,[a]
    exactly as he planned.

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Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 1:6 Or our ways and our actions