Zechariah 1
The Lord is angry with the Israelites for their fathers' sins, but calls them to turn back to Him, promising to turn back to them. The prophet Zechariah has a vision of a man on a red horse among myrtle trees, with other horses behind him, and is told these are the ones the Lord has sent to walk through the earth. The angel of the Lord asks how long the Lord will be angry with Jerusalem, and the Lord responds with words of consolation, saying He is zealous for Jerusalem and will rebuild His house there. Zechariah also sees four horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, and four workmen who have come to frighten them away.
1In the eighth month, in the second year of king Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying2The Lord has become angry over the resentful anger of your fathers3And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, says the Lord of hosts4Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn from your evil ways and from your wicked thoughts. But they did not heed, and neither did they pay attention to me, says the Lord5Your fathers, where are they? And will the prophets live unceasingly6Yet truly my words and my lawfulness, which I entrusted to my servants the prophets, were indeed comprehended by your fathers, and so they were converted, and they said: Just as the Lord of hosts decided to do to us, according to our ways and according to our inventions, so has he done to us7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is called Shevat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying8I saw by night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees, which were in the chasm. And behind him were horses: red, speckled, and white9And I said, "What are these, my lord?" And the angel, who was speaking with me, said to me, "I will reveal to you what these are.10And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, "These are they, whom the Lord has sent in order to walk through the earth.11And those who stood among the myrtle trees answered the angel of the Lord, and they said, "We have walked through the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited and is at rest.12And the angel of the Lord answered and said, "Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry? This is now the seventieth year.13And the Lord answered the angel, who had been speaking with me, good words, consoling words14And the angel, who was speaking with me, said to me: Cry out, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I have been zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great zeal15And, with a great anger, I am angry with the wealthy nations. Though I had been angry a little, truly they advanced further in evil16Because of this, thus says the Lord: I will be turned back, towards Jerusalem, with mercies; and my house will be built upon this, says the Lord of hosts. And the building line will be extended over Jerusalem17Until then, cry out saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Until then, my cities will flow with good things, and, until then, the Lord will comfort Zion, and, until then, he will single out Jerusalem18And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw. And behold: four horns19And I said to the angel, who was speaking with me, "What are these?" And he said to me, "These are the horns that have winnowed Judah and Israel and Jerusalem.20And the Lord showed me four workmen21And I said, "What have these come to do?" He spoke, saying, "These are the horns that have winnowed Judah, through every single man, and none of them lifted up his head. And these have come to frighten them away, so as to cast down the horns of the Gentiles, which have lifted up a horn over the land of Judah, so as to scatter it.
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