Zechariah 1
Open in the reader1In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of He-Who-Is came to the prophet He-Who-Is-Remembers son of He-Who-Is-Has-Blessed, the son of Timely, saying:
2“He-Who-Is was very angry with your fathers.
3So tell the people that this is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares He-Who-Is of Hosts, and I will return to you, says He-Who-Is of Hosts.’
4Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares He-Who-Is.
5Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as He-Who-Is of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of He-Who-Is came to the prophet He-Who-Is-Remembers son of He-Who-Is-Has-Blessed, the son of Timely.
8I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
9“What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the messenger who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”
10Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones He-Who-Is has sent to patrol the earth.”
11And the riders answered the messenger of He-Who-Is who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.”
12Then the messenger of He-Who-Is said, “How long, O He-Who-Is of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Foundation-of-Peace and the cities of Praised, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
13So He-Who-Is spoke kind and comforting words to the messenger who was speaking with me.
14Then the messenger who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Foundation-of-Peace and Marker,
15but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’
16Therefore this is what He-Who-Is says: ‘I will return to Foundation-of-Peace with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares He-Who-Is of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Foundation-of-Peace.’
17Proclaim further that this is what He-Who-Is of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; He-Who-Is will again comfort Marker and choose Foundation-of-Peace.’”