Zechariah 1-4

Zechariah 1

¹In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

²The Lord has been very angry with your fathers:

³And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you.

⁴Be not like your fathers, to whom the voice of the earlier prophets came, saying, Be turned now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not give ear to me or take note, says the Lord.

⁵Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they go on living for ever?

⁶But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done.

⁷On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

⁸I saw in the night a man on a red horse, between the mountains in the valley, and at his back were horses, red, black, white, and of mixed colours.

⁹Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you what they are.

¹⁰And the man who was between the mountains, answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to go up and down through the earth.

¹¹And the man who was between the mountains, answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at rest.

¹²Then the angel of the Lord, answering, said, O Lord of armies, how long will it be before you have mercy on Jerusalem and on the towns of Judah against which your wrath has been burning for seventy years?

¹³And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me.

¹⁴And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and of Zion.

¹⁵And I am very angry with the nations who are living untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the evil worse.

¹⁶So this is what the Lord has said: I have come back to Jerusalem with mercies; my house is to be put up in her, says the Lord of armies, and a line is to be stretched out over Jerusalem.

¹⁷And again let your voice be loud and say, This is what the Lord of armies has said: My towns will again be overflowing with good things, and again the Lord will give comfort to Zion and take Jerusalem for himself.

¹⁸And lifting up my eyes I saw four horns.

¹⁹And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight.

²⁰And the Lord gave me a vision of four metal-workers.

²¹Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said, These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight.

Zechariah 2

¹And lifting up my eyes, I saw a man with a measuring-line in his hand.

²And I said to him, Where are you going? And he said to me, To take the measure of Jerusalem, to see how wide and how long it is.

³And the angel who was talking to me went out, and another angel went out, and, meeting him,

⁴Said to him, Go quickly and say to this young man, Jerusalem will be an unwalled town, because of the great number of men and cattle in her.

⁵For I, says the Lord, will be a wall of fire round about her, and I will be the glory inside her.

⁶Ho, ho! go in flight from the land of the north, says the Lord: for I have sent you far and wide to the four winds of heaven, says the Lord.

⁷Ho! Zion, go in flight from danger, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.

⁸For this is what the Lord of armies has said: In the way of glory he has sent me to the nations which have taken your goods: for anyone touching you is touching what is most dear to him.

⁹For at the shaking of my hand over them, their goods will be taken by those who were their servants: and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent me.

¹⁰Give songs of joy, O daughter of Zion: for I come, and I will make my resting-place among you, says the Lord.

¹¹And a number of nations will be joined to the Lord in that day, and will become my people; and I will be living among you, and you will see that the Lord of armies has sent me to you.

¹²And Judah will be the Lord's heritage in the holy land, and Jerusalem will again be his.

¹³Let all flesh be quiet and make no sound before the Lord: for he is awake and has come from his holy resting-place.

Zechariah 3

¹And he let me see Joshua, the high priest, in his place before the angel of the Lord, and the Satan at his right hand ready to take up a cause against him.

²And the Lord said to the Satan, May the Lord's word be sharp against you, O Satan, the word of the Lord who has taken Jerusalem for himself: is this not a burning branch pulled out of the fire?

³Now Joshua was clothed in unclean robes, and he was in his place before the angel.

⁴And he made answer and said to those who were there before him, Take the unclean robes off him, and let him be clothed in clean robes;

⁵And let them put a clean head-dress on his head. So they put a clean head-dress on his head, clothing him with clean robes: and to him he said, See, I have taken your sin away from you.

⁶And the angel of the Lord made a statement to Joshua, and said,

⁷These are the words of the Lord of armies: If you will go in my ways and keep what I have put in your care, then you will be judge over my Temple and have the care of my house, and I will give you the right to come in among those who are there.

⁸Give ear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who are seated before you; for these are men who are a sign: for see, I will let my servant the Branch be seen.

⁹For see, the stone which I have put before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: see, the design cut on it will be my work, says the Lord of armies, and I will take away the sin of that land in one day.

¹⁰In that day, says the Lord of armies, you will be one another's guests under the vine and under the fig-tree.

Zechariah 4

¹And the angel who was talking to me came again, awaking me as a man out of his sleep.

²And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, I see a light-support, made all of gold, with its cup on the top of it and seven lights on it; and there are seven pipes to every one of the lights which are on the top of it;

³And two olive-trees by it, one on the right side of the cup and one on the left.

⁴And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord?

⁵Then the angel who was talking to me, answering me, said, Have you no knowledge of what these are? And I said, No, my lord.

⁶This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by force or by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of armies.

⁷Who are you, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel you will become level: and he will let all see the headstone, with cries of Grace, grace, to it.

⁸Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹The hands of Zerubbabel have put the base of this house in place, and his hands will make it complete; and it will be clear to you that the Lord of armies has sent me to you.

¹⁰For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth.

¹¹And I made answer and said to him, What are these two olive-trees on the right side of the light-support and on the left?

¹²And answering a second time, I said to him, What are these two olive branches, through whose gold pipes the oil is drained out?

¹³And he said in answer to me, Have you no knowledge what these are? And I said, No, my lord.

¹⁴And he said, These are the two sons of oil, whose place is by the Lord of all the earth.