Bible-Reading.comZechariah 1
1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
2“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers.
3Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies.
4Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD.
5Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6But 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 the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’”
7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
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.
9Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”
10The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”
11They reported to the LORD’s angel 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.”
12Then the LORD’s angel replied, “O LORD 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?”
13The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words.
14So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
15I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.”
16Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’
17“Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’”
18I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns.
19I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
20The LORD showed me four craftsmen.
21Then 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 that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
Zechariah 2
1I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
2Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”
3Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him,
4and 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.
5For I,’ says the LORD, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her.
6Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says the LORD; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says the LORD.
7‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’
8For the LORD of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.
9For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me.
10Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you,’ says the LORD.
11Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you.
12The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
13Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
Zechariah 3
1He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the LORD’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
2The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Yes, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”
3Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel.
4He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.”
5I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.” So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and the LORD’s angel was standing by.
6The LORD’s angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying,
7“The LORD of Armies says: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will follow my instructions, then you also shall judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who stand by.
8Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign; for, behold, I will bring out my servant, the Branch.
9For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua: on one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10In that day,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”
Zechariah 4
1The angel who talked with me came again and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
2He said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lamp stand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps which are on the top of it;
3and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it.”
4I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”
5Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
6Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is the LORD’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD of Armies.
7Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”
8Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying,
9“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you.
10Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These are the LORD’s eyes, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”
11Then I asked him, “What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lamp stand and on the left side of it?”
12I asked him the second time, “What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts that pour the golden oil out of themselves?”
13He answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
14Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Zechariah 5
1Then again I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll.
2He said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.”
3Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land, for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.
4I will cause it to go out,” says the LORD of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the middle of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.”
5Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is that is appearing.”
6I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the ephah basket that is appearing.” He said moreover, “This is their appearance in all the land—
7and behold, a lead cover weighing one talent was lifted up—and there was a woman sitting in the middle of the ephah basket.”
8He said, “This is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the middle of the ephah basket; and he threw the lead weight on its mouth.
9Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there were two women; and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky.
10Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are these carrying the ephah basket?”
11He said to me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.”
Zechariah 6
1Again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of bronze.
2In the first chariot were red horses. In the second chariot were black horses.
3In the third chariot were white horses. In the fourth chariot were dappled horses, all of them powerful.
4Then I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5The angel answered me, “These are the four winds of the sky, which go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
6The one with the black horses goes out toward the north country; and the white went out after them; and the dappled went out toward the south country.”
7The strong went out, and sought to go that they might walk back and forth through the earth. He said, “Go around and through the earth!” So they walked back and forth through the earth.
8Then he called to me, and spoke to me, saying, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.”
9The LORD’s word came to me, saying,
10“Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah; and come the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have come from Babylon.
11Yes, take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest;
12and speak to him, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch! He will grow up out of his place; and he will build the LORD’s temple.
13He will build the LORD’s temple. He will bear the glory, and will sit and rule on his throne. He will be a priest on his throne. The counsel of peace will be between them both.
14The crowns shall be to Helem, to Tobijah, to Jedaiah, and to Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the LORD’s temple.
15Those who are far off shall come and build in the LORD’s temple; and you shall know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you. This will happen, if you will diligently obey the LORD your God’s voice.”’”
Zechariah 7
1In the fourth year of King Darius, the LORD’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
2The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech and their men to entreat the LORD’s favor,
3and to speak to the priests of the house of the LORD of Armies and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?”
4Then the word of the LORD of Armies came to me, saying,
5“Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?
6When you eat and when you drink, don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?
7Aren’t these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”
8The LORD’s word came to Zechariah, saying,
9“Thus has the LORD of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother.
10Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’
11But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear.
12Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law and the words which the LORD of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of Armies.
13It has come to pass that, as he called and they refused to listen, so they will call and I will not listen,” said the LORD of Armies;
14“but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”