Read the Bible

¹ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,² Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers.³ Therefore you say to them, Thus says Yahweh of hosts: Return to me, says Yahweh of hosts, and I will return to you, says Yahweh of hosts.⁴ Don't be as your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus says Yahweh of hosts, Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.⁵ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live forever?⁶ But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my slaves the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like Yahweh of hosts thought to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.

⁷ On the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,⁸ I saw in the night, and, look, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, 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 these are.¹⁰ And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered and said, These are those whom Yahweh has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.¹¹ And they answered the angel of Yahweh that stood among the myrtle-trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, look, all the earth sits still, and is at rest.¹² Then the angel of Yahweh answered and said, O Yahweh of hosts, 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 And Yahweh answered the angel that talked with me with good words, [even] comfortable words.¹⁴ So the angel that talked with me said to me, Cry out, saying, Thus says Yahweh of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.¹⁵ And I am very intensely displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.¹⁶ Therefore thus says Yahweh: I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, says Yahweh of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.¹⁷ Cry out yet again, saying, Thus says Yahweh of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and Yahweh shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

¹⁸ And I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and saw four horns.¹⁹ And I said to the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.²⁰ And Yahweh showed me four smiths.²¹ Then I said, What do these come to do? And he spoke, saying, 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.