Chronological
1 Subject: messages from the Lord. These messages from the Lord were given to Zechariah (son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo the prophet) in early November of the second year of the reign of King Darius.
2 The Lord Almighty was very angry with your fathers. 3 But he will turn again and favor you if only you return to him. 4 Don’t be like your fathers were! The earlier prophets pled in vain with them to turn from all their evil ways.
“Come, return to me,” the Lord God said. But no, they wouldn’t listen; they paid no attention at all.
5-6 Your fathers and their prophets are now long dead, but remember the lesson they learned, that God’s Word endures! It caught up with them and punished them. Then at last they repented.
“We have gotten what we deserved from God,” they said. “He has done just what he warned us he would.”
7 The following February, still in the second year of the reign of King Darius, another message from the Lord came to Zechariah (son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo the prophet), in a vision in the night: 8 I saw a Man sitting on a red horse that was standing among the myrtle trees beside a river. Behind him were other horses, red and bay and white, each with its rider.[a]
9 An angel stood beside me, and I asked him, “Sir, what are all those horses for?”
“I’ll tell you,” he replied.
10 Then the rider on the red horse—he was the Angel of the Lord—answered me, “The Lord has sent them to patrol the earth for him.”
11 Then the other riders reported to the Angel of the Lord, “We have patrolled the whole earth, and everywhere there is prosperity and peace.”
12 Upon hearing this, the Angel of the Lord prayed this prayer: “O Lord Almighty, for seventy years your anger has raged against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. How long will it be until you again show mercy to them?”
13 And the Lord answered the angel who stood beside me, speaking words of comfort and assurance.
14 Then the angel said, “Shout out this message from the Lord Almighty: ‘Don’t you think I care about what has happened to Judah and Jerusalem? I am as jealous as a husband for his captive wife. 15 I am very angry with the heathen nations sitting around at ease, for I was only a little displeased with my people, but the nations afflicted them far beyond my intentions.’ 16 Therefore the Lord declares: ‘I have returned to Jerusalem filled with mercy; my Temple will be rebuilt,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and so will all Jerusalem.’ 17 Say it again: ‘The Lord Almighty declares that the cities of Israel will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Jerusalem and bless her and live in her.’ ”
18 Then I looked and saw four animal horns!
19 “What are these?” I asked the angel.
He replied, “They represent the four world powers that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20 Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths.
21 “What have these men come to do?” I asked.
The angel replied, “They have come to take hold of the four horns that scattered Judah so terribly, and to pound them on the anvil and throw them away.”
2 When I looked around me again, I saw a man carrying a yardstick in his hand.
2 “Where are you going?” I asked.
“To measure Jerusalem,” he said. “I want to see whether it is big enough for all the people!”
3 Then the angel who was talking to me went over to meet another angel coming toward him.
4 “Go tell this young man,” said the other angel, “that Jerusalem will some day be so full of people that she won’t have room enough for all! Many will live outside the city walls, with all their many cattle—and yet they will be safe. 5 For the Lord himself will be a wall of fire protecting them and all Jerusalem; he will be the glory of the city.
6-7 “Come, flee from the land of the north, from Babylon,” says the Lord to all his exiles there; “I scattered you to the winds, but I will bring you back again. Escape, escape to Zion now!” says the Lord.
8 “The Lord of Glory has sent me[b] against the nations that oppressed you, for he who harms you sticks his finger in Jehovah’s eye!
9 “I will smash them with my fist and their slaves will be their rulers! Then you will know it was the Lord Almighty who sent me. 10 Sing, Jerusalem, and rejoice! For I have come to live among you,” says the Lord. 11-12 “At that time many nations will be converted to the Lord, and they too shall be my people; I will live among them all. Then you will know it was the Lord Almighty who sent me to you. And Judah shall be the Lord’s inheritance in the Holy Land, for God shall once more choose to bless Jerusalem.
13 “Be silent, all mankind, before the Lord, for he has come to earth from heaven, from his holy home.”
3 Then the Angel showed me (in my vision) Joshua the High Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord; and Satan was there too, at the Angel’s right hand, accusing Joshua of many things.
2 And the Lord said to Satan, “I reject your accusations, Satan;[c] yes, I, the Lord, for I have decided to be merciful to Jerusalem—I rebuke you. I have decreed mercy to Joshua and his nation; they are like a burning stick pulled out of the fire.”
3 Joshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood before the Angel of the Lord.
4 Then the Angel said to the others standing there, “Remove his filthy clothing.” And turning to Joshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”
5-6 Then I said, “Please, could he also have a clean turban on his head?” So they gave him one.
Then the Angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Joshua and said, 7 “The Lord Almighty declares: ‘If you will follow the paths I set for you and do all I tell you to, then I will put you in charge of my Temple, to keep it holy; and I will let you walk in and out of my presence with these angels. 8 Listen to me, O Joshua the High Priest, and all you other priests, you are illustrations of the good things to come. Don’t you see?—Joshua represents my servant the Branch[d] whom I will send. 9 He will be the Foundation Stone of the Temple that Joshua is standing beside, and I will engrave this inscription on it seven times:[e] I will remove the sins of this land in a single day. 10 And after that,’ the Lord Almighty declares, ‘you will all live in peace and prosperity, and each of you will own a home of your own where you can invite your neighbors.’”
4 Then the angel who had been talking with me woke me, as though I had been asleep.
2 “What do you see now?” he asked.
I answered, “I see a gold lampstand holding seven lamps, and at the top there is a reservoir for the olive oil that feeds the lamps, flowing into them through seven tubes. 3 And I see two olive trees carved upon the lampstand, one on each side of the reservoir. 4 What is it, sir?” I asked. “What does this mean?”
5 “Don’t you really know?” the angel asked.
“No, sir,” I said, “I don’t.”
6 Then he said, “This is God’s message to Zerubbabel:[f] ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty—you will succeed because of my Spirit, though you are few and weak.’ 7 Therefore no mountain, however high, can stand before Zerubbabel! For it will flatten out before him! And Zerubbabel will finish building this Temple[g] with mighty shouts of thanksgiving for God’s mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone.”
8 Another message that I received from the Lord said:
9 “Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. (Then you will know these messages are from God, the Lord Almighty.) 10 Do not despise this small beginning, for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. For these seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord that see everywhere around the world.”
11 Then I asked him about the two olive trees on each side of the lampstand, 12 and about the two olive branches that emptied oil into gold bowls through two gold tubes.
13 “Don’t you know?” he asked.
“No, sir,” I said.
14 Then he told me, “They represent the two anointed ones who assist the Lord of all the earth.”
5 I looked up again and saw a scroll flying through the air.
2 “What do you see?” he asked.
“A flying scroll!” I replied. “It appears to be about thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide!”
3 “This scroll,” he told me, “represents the words of God’s curse going out over the entire land. It says that all who steal and lie have been judged and sentenced to death.”
4 “I am sending this curse into the home of every thief and everyone who swears falsely by my name,” says the Lord Almighty. “And my curse shall remain upon his home and completely destroy it.”
5 Then the angel left me for a while, but he returned and said, “Look up! Something is traveling through the sky!”
6 “What is it?” I asked.
He replied, “It is a bushel basket filled with the sin prevailing everywhere throughout the land.”
7 Suddenly the heavy lead cover on the basket was lifted off, and I could see a woman sitting inside the basket!
8 He said, “She represents wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and clamped down the heavy lid again.
9 Then I saw two women flying toward us, with wings like those of a stork. And they took the bushel basket and flew off with it, high in the sky.
10 “Where are they taking her?” I asked the angel.
11 He replied, “To Babylon[h] where they will build a temple for the basket, to worship it!”
6 Then I looked up again and saw four chariots coming from between what looked like two mountains made of brass. 2 The first chariot was pulled by red horses, the second by black ones, 3 the third by white horses and the fourth by dappled-grays.
4 “And what are these, sir?” I asked the angel.
5 He replied, “These are the four heavenly spirits who stand before the Lord of all the earth; they are going out to do his work. 6 The chariot pulled by the black horses will go north, and the one pulled by white horses will follow it there,[i] while the dappled-grays will go south.”
7 The red[j] horses were impatient to be off, to patrol back and forth across the earth, so the Lord said, “Go. Begin your patrol.” So they left at once.
8 Then the Lord summoned me and said, “Those who went north have executed my judgment[k] and quieted my anger there.”
9 In another message the Lord said:
10-11 “Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah will bring gifts of silver and gold from the Jews exiled in Babylon. The same day they arrive, meet them at the home of Josiah (son of Zephaniah), where they will stay. Accept their gifts and make from them a crown from the silver and gold. Then put the crown on the head of Joshua (son of Josedech) the High Priest. 12 Tell him that the Lord Almighty says, ‘You represent the Man who will come, whose name is “The Branch”—he will grow up from himself[l]—and will build the Temple of the Lord. 13 To him belongs the royal title. He will rule both as King and as Priest, with perfect harmony between the two!’
14 “Then put the crown in the Temple of the Lord, to honor those who gave it—Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and also Josiah. 15 These three who have come from so far away represent many others who will someday come from distant lands to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. And when this happens, you will know my messages have been from God, the Lord Almighty. But none of this will happen unless you carefully obey the commandments of the Lord your God.”
7 Another message came to me from the Lord in late November of the fourth year of the reign of King Darius.
2 The Jews of the city of Bethel had sent a group of men headed by Sharezer, the chief administrative officer of the king, and Regem-melech, to the Lord’s Temple at Jerusalem, to seek his blessing 3 and to speak with the priests and prophets about whether they must continue their traditional custom of fasting and mourning during the month of August each year, as they had been doing for so long.
4 This was the Lord’s reply:
5 “When you return to Bethel, say to all your people and your priests, ‘During those seventy years of exile when you fasted and mourned in August and October, were you really in earnest about leaving your sins behind and coming back to me? No, not at all! 6 And even now in your holy feasts to God, you don’t think of me, but only of the food and fellowship and fun. 7 Long years ago, when Jerusalem was prosperous and her southern suburbs out along the plain were filled with people, the prophets warned them that this attitude would surely lead to ruin, as it has.’”
8-9 Then this message from the Lord came to Zechariah. “Tell them to be honest and fair—and not to take bribes—and to be merciful and kind to everyone. 10 Tell them to stop oppressing widows and orphans, foreigners and poor people, and to stop plotting evil against each other. 11 Your fathers would not listen to this message. They turned stubbornly away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing me. 12 They hardened their hearts like flint, afraid to hear the words that God, the Lord Almighty, commanded them—the laws he had revealed to them by his Spirit through the early prophets. That is why such great wrath came down on them from God. 13 I called, but they refused to listen, so when they cried to me, I turned away. 14 I scattered them as with a whirlwind among the far-off nations. Their land became desolate; no one even traveled through it; the Pleasant Land lay bare and blighted.”
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.