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¹ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, a word of YHWH has been to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo the prophet, saying,² "YHWH was angry against your fathers—wrath!³ And you have said to them, Thus said YHWH of Hosts: Return to Me, || A declaration of YHWH of Hosts, || And I return to you, said YHWH of Hosts.⁴ You will not be as your fathers, || To whom the former prophets called, || Saying, Thus said YHWH of Hosts: Please turn back from your evil ways and from your evil doings, || And they did not listen, || Nor attend to Me—a declaration of YHWH.⁵ Your fathers—where [are] they? And the prophets—do they live for all time?⁶ Only, My words and My statutes, || That I commanded My servants the prophets, || Have they not overtaken your fathers? And they turn back and say: As YHWH of Hosts designed to do to us, || According to our ways, and according to our doings, || So He has done to us."

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (it [is] the month of Sebat), in the second year of Darius, a word of YHWH has been to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo the prophet. [He was] saying:⁸ I have seen by night, and behold, one riding on a red horse, and he is standing between the myrtles that [are] in the shade, and behind him [are] horses, red, bay, and white.⁹ And I say, "What [are] these, my lord?" And the messenger who is speaking with me says to me, "I show you what these [are]."¹⁰ And the one who is standing between the myrtles answers and says, "These [are] they whom YHWH has sent to walk up and down in the land."¹¹ And they answer the Messenger of YHWH who is standing between the myrtles, and say, "We have walked up and down in the land, and behold, all the land is sitting still, and at rest."¹² And the Messenger of YHWH answers and says, "YHWH of Hosts! Until when do You not pity Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, that You have abhorred these seventy years?"¹³ And YHWH answers the messenger, who is speaking with me, good words, comfortable words.¹⁴ And the messenger who is speaking with me, says to me, "Call, saying, Thus said YHWH of Hosts: I have been zealous for Jerusalem, || And for Zion [with] great zeal.¹⁵ And [with] great wrath I am angry against the nations who are at ease, || For I was a little angry, and they assisted—for evil.¹⁶ Therefore, thus said YHWH: I have turned to Jerusalem with mercies, || My house is built in it, || A declaration of YHWH of Hosts, || And a line is stretched over Jerusalem.¹⁷ Again call, saying, || Thus said YHWH of Hosts: Again My cities overflow from good, || And YHWH has again comforted Zion, || And He has fixed again on Jerusalem."

¹⁸ And I lift up my eyes, and look, and behold, four horns.¹⁹ And I say to the messenger who is speaking with me, "What [are] these?" And he says to me, "These [are] the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."²⁰ And YHWH shows me four artisans.²¹ And I say, "What [are] these coming to do?" And He speaks, saying, "These [are] the horns that have scattered Judah, so that no one has lifted up his head, and these come to trouble them, to cast down the horns of the nations who are lifting up a horn against the land of Judah—to scatter it."