Chapter
1
A Call to Return to the LORD
1: In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word
of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying:
2: The Lord was very angry with your ancestors.
3: Therefore say to
them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I
will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
4: Do not be like your
ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, "Thus says the Lord of
hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds." But they did
not hear or heed me, says the Lord.
5: Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they
live forever?
6: But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants
the prophets, did they not overtake your ancestors? So they repented and said,
"The Lord of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just
as he planned to do."
The Vision of the Horses
7: On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of
Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet
Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo; and Zechariah said,
8: In the night I saw a man riding on a red
horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen; and behind him were
red, sorrel, and white horses.
9: Then I said, "What are these, my
lord?" The angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what
they are."
10: So the man who was standing among the
myrtle trees answered, "They are those whom the Lord has sent to patrol
the earth."
11: Then they spoke to the angel of the Lord
who was standing among the myrtle trees, "We have patrolled the earth, and
lo, the whole earth remains at peace."
12: Then the angel of the Lord said, "O Lord of hosts, how
long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which
you have been angry these seventy years?"
13: Then the Lord replied with gracious and comforting words to
the angel who talked with me.
14: So the angel who talked with me said to me,
Proclaim this message: Thus says the Lord of hosts; I am very jealous for
Jerusalem and for Zion.
15: And I am extremely angry with the nations
that are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster
worse.
16: Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem
with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and the
measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
17: Proclaim further: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will again
comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.
The Vision of the Horns and Carpenters
18: And I looked up and saw four horns.
19: I asked the angel who talked with me,
"What are these?" And he answered me, "These are the horns that have
scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."
20: Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths.
21: And I asked, "What are they coming to
do?" He answered, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that
no head could be raised; but these have come to terrify them, to strike down
the horns of the nations that lifted up their horns against the land of Judah
to scatter its people."
Chapter
2
The Exiles Summoned
1: I looked up and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2: Then I asked, "Where are you going?" He answered
me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width, and what is its
length."
3: Then the angel who
talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him,
4: and said to him,
"Run, say to that young man: Jerusalem shall be inhabited like villages
without walls, because of the multitude of people and animals in it.
5: For I will be a wall of fire all around it, says the Lord,
and I will be the glory within it."
6: Up, up! Flee from the land of the north, says the Lord; for I
have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven, says the Lord.
7: Up! Escape to Zion, you that live with daughter
Babylon.
8: For thus said the Lord of hosts (after his glory sent me)
regarding the nations that plundered you: Truly, one who touches you touches
the apple of my eye.
9: See now, I am going to raise my hand against them, and they
shall become plunder for their own slaves. Then you will know that the Lord of
hosts has sent me.
10: Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion! For lo, I will come and
dwell in your midst, says the Lord.
11: Many nations shall join themselves to the
Lord on that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in your midst. And
you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
12: The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the
holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
13: Be silent, all people, before the Lord; for he
has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
Chapter
3
The Prophet's Vision of Joshua the High Priest
1: Then he showed me the high priest Joshua standing before the
angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
2: And the Lord said to
Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem
rebuke you! Is not this man a brand plucked from the fire?"
3: Now Joshua was dressed
with filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.
4: The angel said to
those who were standing before him, "Take off his filthy clothes."
And to him he said, "See, I have taken your guilt away from you, and I
will clothe you with festal apparel."
5: And I said, "Let
them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his
head and clothed him with the apparel; and the angel of the Lord was standing
by.
6: Then the angel of the
Lord assured Joshua, saying
7: "Thus says the Lord
of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you shall
rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of
access among those who are standing here.
8: Now listen, Joshua, high priest, you and your
colleagues who sit before you! For they are an omen of things to come: I am
going to bring my servant the Branch.
9: For on the stone that I have set before Joshua,
on a single stone with seven facets, I will engrave its inscription, says the
Lord of hosts, and I will remove the guilt of this land in a single day.
10: On that day, says the Lord of hosts, you shall
invite each other to come under your vine and fig tree."
Chapter
4
The Candlestick and the Olive Trees
1: The angel who talked
with me came again, and wakened me, as one is wakened from sleep.
2: He said to me,
"What do you see?" And I said, "I see a lampstand all of gold,
with a bowl on the top of it; there are seven lamps on it, with seven lips on
each of the lamps that are on the top of it.
3: And by it there are
two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left."
4: I said to the angel
who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?"
5: Then the angel who talked
with me answered me, "Do you not know what these are?" I said,
"No, my lord."
6: He said to me, "This
is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my
spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
7: What are you, O Great
Mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring out
the top stone amid shouts of "Grace, grace to it!' "
8: Moreover the word of the
Lord came to me, saying,
9: "The hands of
Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also
complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
10: For whoever has despised
the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of
Zerubbabel. "These seven are the eyes of the Lord, which range through the
whole earth."
11: Then I said to him, "What are these two
olive trees on the right and the left of the lamp stand?"
12: And a second time I said to him, "What are
these two branches of the olive trees, which pour out the oil through the two
golden pipes?"
13: He said to me, "Do you not know what these
are?" I said, "No, my lord."
14: Then he said, "These are the two
anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth."
Chapter
5
The Flying Roll
1: Again I looked up and saw a flying scroll.
2: And he said to me, "What do you see?" I
answered, "I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its
width ten cubits."
3: Then he said to me,
"This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land; for
everyone who steals shall be cut off according to the writing on one side, and
everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to the writing on the
other side.
4: I have sent it out,
says the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the
house of anyone who swears falsely by my name; and it shall abide in that house
and consume it, both timber and stones."
The Woman in the Ephah
5: Then the angel who talked with me came forward
and said to me, "Look up and see what this is that is coming out."
6: I said, "What is it?" He said, "This
is a basket coming out." And he said, "This is their iniquity in all
the land."
7: Then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a
woman sitting in the basket!
8: And he said, "This is Wickedness." So
he thrust her back into the basket, and pressed the leaden weight down on its
mouth.
9: Then I looked up and saw two women coming
forward. The wind was in their wings; they had wings like the wings of a stork,
and they lifted up the basket between earth and sky.
10: Then I said to the angel who talked with me,
"Where are they taking the basket?"
11: He said to me, "To the land of Shinar, to
build a house for it; and when this is prepared, they will set the basket down
there on its base."
Chapter
6
The Four Chariots
1: And again I looked up and saw four chariots coming out from
between two mountains-mountains of bronze.
2: The first chariot had red
horses, the second chariot black horses,
3: the third chariot white
horses, and the fourth chariot dappled gray horses.
4: Then I said to the
angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?"
5: The angel answered me,
"These are the four winds of heaven going out, after presenting themselves
before the Lord of all the earth.
6: The chariot with the
black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go toward the west
country, and the dappled ones go toward the south country."
7: When the steeds came out,
they were impatient to get off and patrol the earth. And he said, "Go,
patrol the earth." So they patrolled the earth.
8: Then he cried out to me,
"Lo, those who go toward the north country have set my spirit at rest in
the north country."
The Symbolic Crowning of Joshua
9: The word of the Lord came to me:
10: Collect silver and gold from the exiles-from
Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah-who have arrived from Babylon; and go the same day
to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.
11: Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and
set it on the head of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak;
12: say to him: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Here is a
man whose name is Branch: for he shall branch out in his place, and he shall
build the temple of the Lord.
13: It is he that shall build the temple of the Lord;
he shall bear royal honor, and shall sit upon his throne and rule. There shall
be a priest by his throne, with peaceful understanding between the two of them.
14: And the crown shall be in the care of
Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah son of Zephaniah, as a memorial in the
temple of the Lord.
15: Those who are far off shall come and help to build
the temple of the Lord; and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me
to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Chapter
7
Insincere Fasting Reproved
1: In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the Lord came
to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.
2: Now the people of Bethel
had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the
Lord,
3: and to ask the priests of
the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, "Should I mourn and
practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?"
4: Then the word of
the Lord of hosts came to me:
5: Say to all the people of
the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and
in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
6: And when you eat and when
you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?
7: Were not these the words
that the Lord proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited
and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the
Shephelah were inhabited?
Disobedience the Cause of Captivity
8: The word of the Lord came
to Zechariah, saying:
9: Thus says the Lord of
hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;
10: do not oppress the widow,
the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts
against one another.
11: But they refused to
listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to
hear.
12: They made their
hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the Lord of
hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath
came from the Lord of hosts.
13: Just as, when I called,
they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the Lord of
hosts,
14: and I scattered
them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the
land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant
land was made desolate.
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