1:1 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,
1:2 “Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers.
1:3 Therefore tell them: Thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.
1:4 Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, ‘Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;’ but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says Yahweh.
1:5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
1:6 But 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 Yahweh of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”
1:7 On the twenty-fourth 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,
1:8 “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.
1:9 Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
1:10 The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”
1:11 They reported to the angel of Yahweh 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.”
1:12 Then the angel of Yahweh replied, “O Yahweh 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?”
1:13 Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.
1:14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
1:15 I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”
1:16 Therefore thus says Yahweh: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.”’
1:17 “Proclaim further, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of Armies: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”
1:18 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns.
1:19 I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
1:20 Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.
1:21 Then 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, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
2:1 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2:2 Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length.”
2:3 Behold, the angel who talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,
2:4 and 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.
2:5 For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.
2:6 Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says Yahweh; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says Yahweh.
2:7 ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’
2:8 For thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.
2:9 For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a spoil to those who served them; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me.
2:10 Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you,’ says Yahweh.
2:11 Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you.
2:12 Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
2:13 Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”