Read the Bible

¹ IN the eighth month, on the first day of the 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, saying,² The LORD was very angry with your fathers.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 Be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Turn now from your evil ways and from your evil doings; but they did not listen, nor give ear to me, says the LORD.⁵ Your fathers, where are they? And my prophets, do they live for ever?⁶ But my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets, your fathers did remember them and thought of them, saying, As the LORD of hosts thought to deal with us, according to our ways and according to our devices, so has he dealt with us.

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat (February), in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,⁸ I saw by the night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees which gave shade; and behind him were red horses, speckled, and white.⁹ Then I said, O my LORD, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said to me, I will show you what they are.¹⁰ And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said to me, These are they whom the LORD has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.¹¹ And they answered and said to the angel of the LORD who stood among the myrtle trees, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sits still and is at rest.¹² Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these seventy years?¹³ And the LORD answered the angel who talked with me with good words and comforting words.¹⁴ So the angel who spoke with me said to me, Proclaim and say, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great zeal.¹⁵ And I am very angry with the nations who are raging; for while I was but a little angry, they helped to carry the disaster to the extreme.¹⁶ Therefore thus says the LORD: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.¹⁷ Proclaim again, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts: From henceforth the cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and the LORD shall again build Zion and shall again choose Jerusalem.

¹⁸ Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold four horns.¹⁹ And I said to the angel who talked with me, My lord, what are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.²⁰ And the LORD showed me four carpenters.²¹ Then I said, What are these coming to do? And he said to me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to frighten and to uproot the horns of the Gentiles who lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.