“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.’” 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, “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. Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’”

The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.”

The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”

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.”
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?”

Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. 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. I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.” 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.”’

“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.”’”

I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns. 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.”

Yahweh showed me four craftsmen. 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.”

1:1 “Yahweh” is God’s proper Name, sometimes rendered “LORD” (all caps) in other translations.

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He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length.”

Behold, the angel who talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, 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. 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. 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. ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ 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. 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. Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you,’ says Yahweh. 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. Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”

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Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off of him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.”

I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.”

So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and the angel of Yahweh was standing by. The angel of Yahweh protested to Joshua, saying, “Thus says Yahweh of Armies: ‘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. Hear 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 forth my servant, the Branch. For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes: behold, I will engrave its engraving,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”

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I said, “I have seen, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are on the top of it; and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it.”

I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?”

Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?”

I said, “No, my lord.”

Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh of Armies. Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of ‘Grace, grace, to it!’”

Moreover the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. Indeed, 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 eyes of Yahweh, which run back and forth through the whole earth.”

Then I asked him, “What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lampstand and on the left side of it?”

I 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?”

He answered me, “Don’t you know what these are?”

I said, “No, my lord.”

Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits.”

Then 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. I will cause it to go out,” says Yahweh 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 midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.”

Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing.”

I 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 (and behold, a talent of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket.” He said, “This is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth.

Then lifted I 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. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are these carrying the ephah basket?”

He 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.”

5:7 A talent is a weight of about 34 kilograms or 75 pounds.

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