Zechariah 1
1
A Call to Return to the Lord
1 #
Ezra 4.24—5.1; 6.14. In the eighth month, in the second year of Dari´us, came the word of the Lord unto Zechari´ah, the son of Berechi´ah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 2The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers. 3Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. 4Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evildoings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord. 5Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? 6But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.
The Vision of the Horses
7Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat in the second year of Dari´us, came the word of the Lord unto Zechari´ah, the son of Berechi´ah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, 8#Rev 6.4; Rev 6.2. I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white. 9Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will show thee what these be. 10And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth. 11And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. 12Then 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 threescore and ten years? 13And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words. 14So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. 15And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction. 16Therefore thus saith the Lord; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched upon Jerusalem. 17Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
The Vision of the Horns and Carpenters
18Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. 19And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 20And the Lord showed me four carpenters. 21Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.
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Zechariah 1: KJVAE
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King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.
Zechariah 1
1
The Lord Wants His People to Return
1Zechariah son of Berekiah received a message from the Lord. This was in the eighth month of the second year that Darius#1:1 the second year … Darius That is, about 520 B.C. Also in verse 7. was king in Persia. (Zechariah was the son of Berekiah, who was the son of Iddo the prophet.) This is that message:
2The Lord became very angry with your ancestors. 3So you must tell the people what the Lord All-Powerful says, “Come back to me, says the Lord All-Powerful, and I will come back to you.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.
4“Don’t be like your ancestors. In the past the prophets spoke to them and said, ‘The Lord All-Powerful wants you to change your evil way of living. Stop doing evil things!’ But your ancestors did not listen to me.” This is what the Lord said.
5“Your ancestors are gone, and those prophets did not live forever. 6The prophets were my servants. I used them to tell your ancestors about my laws and teachings. Your ancestors finally learned their lesson and said, ‘The Lord All-Powerful did what he said he would do. He punished us for the way we lived and for all the evil things we did.’ So they came back to God.”
The Four Horses
7On the 24th day of the eleventh month (Shebat) of the second year that Darius was king of Persia, Zechariah received another message from the Lord. (This was Zechariah son of Berekiah, son of Iddo.) This is the message:
8At night I saw a man riding a red horse. He was standing among some myrtle bushes in the valley. Behind him, there were red, brown, and white horses. 9I said, “Sir, what are these horses for?”
Then the angel speaking to me said, “I will show you what these horses are for.”
10Then the man standing among the myrtle bushes said, “The Lord sent these horses to go here and there on earth.”
11Then the horses spoke to the Lord’s angel standing among the myrtle bushes and said, “We have walked here and there on the earth, and everything is calm and quiet.”
12Then the Lord’s angel said, “Lord All-Powerful, how long before you comfort Jerusalem and the cities of Judah? You have shown your anger at these cities for 70 years now.”
13Then the Lord answered the angel who was talking with me. He spoke good, comforting words.
14Then the angel told me to tell the people this: The Lord All-Powerful says:
“I have a strong love for Jerusalem and Zion.
15And I am very angry at the nations that feel so safe.
I was only a little angry,
and I used them to punish my people.
But they caused too much damage.”
16So the Lord says, “I will come back to Jerusalem and comfort her.”
The Lord All-Powerful says, “Jerusalem will be rebuilt,
and my house will be built there.”
17The angel also said, “The Lord All-Powerful says,
‘My towns will be rich again.
I will comfort Zion.
I will again choose Jerusalem to be my special city.’”
The Four Horns and Four Workers
18Then I looked up and I saw four horns. 19So I asked the angel who was talking with me, “What do these horns mean?”
He said, “These are the horns that forced the people of Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem to go to foreign countries.”
20The Lord showed me four workers. 21I asked him, “What are these four workers coming to do?”
He said, “The horns represent the nations that attacked the people of Judah and forced them to go to foreign countries. The horns ‘threw’ the people of Judah to the foreign countries. The horns didn’t show mercy to anyone. But these four workers have come to frighten the horns and throw them away.”
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