1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yehovah’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 2 “Yehovah was very displeased with your fathers. 3 Therefore tell them: Yehovah of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yehovah of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yehovah of Armies. 4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yehovah of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear, nor listen to me, says Yehovah. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers?
“Then they repented and said, ‘Just as Yehovah of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’” 7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, Yehovah’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, 8 “I had a vision in the night, and look, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses. 9 Then I asked, ‘My master, what are these?’”
The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones Yehovah has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”
11 They reported to Yehovah’s angel who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked back and forth through the earth, and look, all the earth is at rest and in peace.”
12 Then Yehovah’s angel replied, “O Yehovah of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?”
13 Yehovah answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yehovah of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.” 16 Therefore Yehovah says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says Yehovah of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’
17 “Proclaim further, saying, ‘Yehovah of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yehovah will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”
18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and look, four horns. 19 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?”
He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20 Yehovah showed me four craftsmen. 21 Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?”
He said, “These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”