The Daily Audio Bible

The vision about Jerusalem that God gave to Zechariah

2 Then I looked up and I saw a man in front of me. He had a line in his hand. The line was to measure something. ² I asked the man, ‘Where are you going?’ He said to me, ‘I am going to measure Jerusalem. I want to see how wide and how long it is.’ ³ The angel that talked with me went away. Another angel came to meet him. ⁴ The second angel said to the first angel, ‘Run to that young man with the line in his hand. Say that Jerusalem will be a city without walls. This is because of the many people and many animals that will live in it. ⁵ The Lord himself promises that he will be like a wall of fire round Jerusalem. He will shine as a beautiful light inside the city.’

The Lord will be among his people

⁶ ‘Come! Come! Run away from the country in the north,’ says the Lord. ‘As the four winds blow in different directions, I sent you to many far countries.

⁷ Come, my people. Run away from Babylon and return to Jerusalem.’ ⁸ Return because the Lord says, ‘Anyone that attacks you is attacking the Lord's people. He is attacking the people that the Lord loves.’ So the Lord Almighty sent me, Zechariah, with this message about the countries that have robbed his people. ⁹ ‘The Lord himself will fight against your enemies and their own slaves will rob them. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me, Zechariah, to you.’

¹⁰ ‘Sing and be happy, you people in Jerusalem. This is because I will come. And I will live among you,’ says the Lord. ¹¹ ‘On that day, the people from many countries will come to me, the Lord, and they will become my people. I will live among you. You will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me. ¹² The Lord will choose Judah for himself again. Jerusalem will be the city that he loves most of all cities. ¹³ Be quiet, all people, because the Lord has left his home in heaven to come among you.’

Clean clothes for Joshua the most important priest

3 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to me, Zechariah, and he showed me Joshua, the most important priest. Joshua was standing in front of the angel of the Lord. Satan stood on the right side of Joshua. He was ready to say that Joshua had done bad things. ² The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord says that you are wrong. The Lord has chosen Jerusalem. And he says that you are wrong. Joshua is certainly like a burning stick that someone pulls quickly out of the fire.’

³ Joshua was wearing very dirty clothes and he stood in front of the angel. ⁴ The angel said to the other angels that stood in front of him, ‘Remove his very dirty clothes.’ Then the first angel said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken away your sin. I will put the clothes on you that a priest should wear.’

⁵ Then Zechariah said, ‘Put a clean hat on his head.’ So they put a clean hat on his head and they dressed him in clean clothes. The angel of the Lord stood near to them.^[a]

⁶ The angel of the Lord spoke to Joshua with these serious words. ⁷ ‘These are the words of the Lord Almighty. Listen to them and obey them. “You will rule in my house. You will rule inside the walls of my house. I will give you a place among the angels that are standing here.

⁸ Listen, Joshua, most important priest of the Lord. Listen you priests that sit with Joshua. You are like a sign. People can look at you. And they can know that good things will happen in future years. See! I will bring to you my servant who is called The Branch.^{[b] 9} See the stone that I have put in front of Joshua! It is a stone with seven sides and I will cut words in the stone”, says the Lord Almighty. “I will remove the sin of this country's people in one day.” ¹⁰ “On that day”, says the Lord Almighty, “each of you will ask your friends to come. You will ask them to come and to sit under your own vines and fig trees.” ’^[c]

The wild animal from the sea

13 Then I saw a wild animal that was coming up out of the sea.^[a] It had ten horns and there was a crown on each horn. The animal also had seven heads. On each head there was a bad name that insulted God. ² The wild animal that I saw was like a leopard. But its feet were like a bear's feet and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. The dragon gave his own power and great authority to the wild animal so that it could rule as king.

³ Someone had hurt one of the wild animal's heads with a bad wound. It seemed that it would soon die. But the wound in the animal's head had become well again. This surprised all the people who were living on the earth. As a result, they were ready to obey what the wild animal said. ⁴ People worshipped the dragon because he had given his authority to the wild animal. They also worshipped the wild animal. They said, ‘Nobody is like this animal! Nobody is strong enough to fight against him!’

⁵ The wild animal received authority to rule people for 42 months. It could speak proud words and insult God. ⁶ So it started to speak against God. It insulted God's name and the place where he lives, as well as the people who live there in heaven. ⁷ It received power to fight a war against God's own people and to win against them. It received authority to rule over people from every nation, people from every tribe and people from every language. ⁸ Nearly all the people who live on the earth will worship the wild animal. But those people whose names are in the Lamb's book of life will not worship it.^[b] The Lamb wrote the names of these believers in his book from the beginning of the world. He is the Lamb that people killed as a sacrifice.

⁹ Everyone who can understand should listen carefully to these words:

This means that God's people must be patient and strong. They must continue to trust God.^[c]

The wild animal from the land

¹¹ Then I saw a second wild animal. This one was coming up out of the ground.^[d] It had two horns like a lamb's horns. But it spoke like a dragon. ¹² It worked for the first wild animal and it used the authority of the first wild animal. It made all the people on earth worship the first wild animal. That first animal was the one that someone had hurt very much. It seemed that it would soon die but it had become well again.

¹³ The second wild animal did great miracles. It even caused fire to come down from heaven to the earth, while people watched. ¹⁴ It used the authority of the first wild animal to do many miracles. In that way, it deceived the people who lived on the earth. It told them to make an image of the first wild animal. This was the animal that was still alive after a sword had given it a bad wound. ¹⁵ The second wild animal received power to give life to the image of the first wild animal. As a result, the image could speak. It said, ‘Anyone who refuses to worship me must die!’

¹⁶ The second wild animal also caused everyone to receive a mark. Everyone received a mark on their right hand or on the front of their head. This included important people and ordinary people, rich people and poor people, free people and slaves. ¹⁷ Nobody could buy anything unless they had this mark on them. Nor could they sell anything. This mark shows the wild animal's name or the number of its name.

¹⁸ You must think carefully so that you can understand this number. Anyone who is wise should try to understand what the wild animal's number means. It is a human number. The number is 666.

David wrote this song.

An evening prayer^[a]

¹⁸ There are three things that are too difficult for me to understand, even four things:

²⁰ A woman who is not faithful to her husband does this: When she has sex with another man, she thinks it is like a meal that she has eaten. Then she washes herself and she says, ‘I have not done anything wrong.’ That is something else that I cannot understand.