¹In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet and said, ²“The Lord is very angry with your fathers, ³so you will say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says: «Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. ⁴Do not be like your fathers to whom the first prophets called and said, ‹This is what the Lord of hosts says: "Return now from your wicked ways and your wicked works" ›, but who did not heed it and who did not hearken to me, says the Lord. ⁵Where are your fathers? And do the prophets live age-abidingly? ⁶But regarding my words and my statutes with which I commanded my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? Then they repented and said, ‹According to how the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us, according to our ways and our deeds, so he has dealt with us.› » ’ ” ⁷On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, that is the month of Shvat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, as follows: ⁸I saw a vision at night, and there was a man riding on a red horse, who stood between the myrtles which were in the deep vale, and after him came red horses, bay ones, and white ones. ⁹And I said, “What are these, my Lord?” And the angel speaking to me said to me, “I will show you what these are.” ¹⁰And the man standing between the myrtles answered and said, “These are what the Lord has sent, to walk up and down on the earth.” ¹¹And they answered the angel of the Lord, who was standing between the myrtles, and they said, “We have walked up and down the earth, and what we saw was that the whole earth was dwelling undisturbed and was quiet.” ¹²And the angel of the Lord replied and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, over which you have been indignant for seventy years now?” ¹³And the Lord answered the angel speaking to me, with good words, comforting words. ¹⁴And the angel speaking to me said, “Call out and say, ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says:

«I am jealous for Jerusalem and Zion with a great jealousy.

¹⁵And I am angry with a great anger,

With the nations which are at ease,

For I was a little angry,

But they have exacerbated the evil.»

¹⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says:

«I will return to Jerusalem with compassion;

My house will be built in it,

Says the Lord of hosts,

And a cord will be stretched out over Jerusalem.» ’

¹⁷Call out again and say, ‘This is what the Lord of hosts says:

«My cities will yet overflow with goodness,

And the Lord will yet have mercy on Zion,

And he will yet choose Jerusalem.» ’ ”

¹⁸Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and what I saw was four horns. ¹⁹And I said to the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.” ²⁰And the Lord showed me four craftsmen. ²¹And I said, “What are these coming to do?” And he spoke and said, “Those are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man could lift his head, but these have come to terrify them, to throw out the horns of the Gentiles who are lifting up a horn against the land of Judah, to scatter it.”