Zechariah 1-4

Zechariah 1

¹In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,

²“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers.

³Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies.

⁴Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD.

⁵Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

⁶But 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 the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”

⁷On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,

⁸“I had a vision in the night, and behold, 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.

⁹Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”

¹⁰The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”

¹¹They reported to the LORD’s angel who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace.”

¹²Then the LORD’s angel replied, “O LORD 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?”

¹³The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.

¹⁴So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

¹⁵I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”

¹⁶Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’

¹⁷“Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”

¹⁸I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns.

¹⁹I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

²⁰The LORD showed me four craftsmen.

²¹Then 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 that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

Zechariah 2

¹I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.

²Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”

³Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him,

⁴and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it.

⁵For I,’ says the LORD, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.

⁶Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says the LORD; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says the LORD.

⁷‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’

⁸For the LORD of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.

⁹For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me.

¹⁰Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you,’ says the LORD.

¹¹Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you.

¹²The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.

¹³Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”

Zechariah 3

¹He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the LORD’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.

²The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Yes, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”

³Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel.

⁴He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.”

⁵I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.” So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and the LORD’s angel was standing by.

⁶The LORD’s angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying,

⁷“The LORD of Armies says: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will follow my instructions, then you also shall judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who stand by.

⁸Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign; for, behold, I will bring out my servant, the Branch.

⁹For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua: on one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

¹⁰In that day,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”

Zechariah 4

¹The angel who talked with me came again and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.

²He said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lamp stand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps which are on the top of it;

³and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it.”

⁴I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”

⁶Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is the LORD’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD of Armies.

⁷Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”

⁸Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying,

⁹“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you.

¹⁰Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the LORD’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”

¹¹Then I asked him, “What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lamp stand and on the left side of it?”

¹²I asked him the second time, “What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts that pour the golden oil out of themselves?”

¹³He answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”

¹⁴Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”