Zechariah

¹In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, ²“Yahweh was very displeased with your fathers. ³Therefore tell them, Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says Yahweh of Armies. ⁴Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Yahweh of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says Yahweh. 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?

⁷On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’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?’”

¹⁰The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones Yahweh has sent to go back and forth through the earth.”

¹¹They reported to Yahweh’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 Yahweh’s angel 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?”

¹³Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. ¹⁴So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘Yahweh 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 Yahweh says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’

¹⁷“Proclaim further, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and Yahweh 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?”

²⁰Yahweh showed me four craftsmen. ²¹Then I asked, “What are these coming to do?”

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?”

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 Yahweh, ‘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 Yahweh; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says Yahweh. ⁷‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ ⁸For Yahweh 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 Yahweh of Armies has sent me. ¹⁰Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you,’ says Yahweh. ¹¹Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. ¹²Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. ¹³Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”

¹He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. ²Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh 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.”

⁶Yahweh’s angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying, ⁷“Yahweh 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 Yahweh of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ¹⁰In that day,’ says Yahweh of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”

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?”

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?”

⁶Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, “This is Yahweh’s word to Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says Yahweh 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 Yahweh’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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh’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?”

¹⁴Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord ” of the whole earth.”

¹Then again I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll. ²He said to me, “What do you see?”

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 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 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?”

⁷and behold, a lead cover weighing one talent was lifted up—and there was a woman sitting in the middle of the ephah ” 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.”

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.”

⁹Yahweh’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, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch! He will grow up out of his place; and he will build Yahweh’s temple. ¹³He will build Yahweh’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 Yahweh’s temple.

¹⁵Those who are far off shall come and build in Yahweh’s temple; and you shall know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you. This will happen, if you will diligently obey Yahweh your God’s voice.”’”

¹In the fourth year of King Darius, Yahweh’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 Yahweh’s favor, ³and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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?’”

⁸Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah, saying, ⁹“Thus has Yahweh 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 Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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.”

¹The word of Yahweh of Armies came to me. ²Yahweh of Armies says: “I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.”

³Yahweh says: “I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called ‘The City of Truth;’ and the mountain of Yahweh of Armies, ‘The Holy Mountain.’”

⁴Yahweh of Armies says: “Old men and old women will again dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, every man with his staff in his hand because of their old age. ⁵The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”

⁶Yahweh of Armies says: “If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my eyes?” says Yahweh of Armies.

⁷Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country. ⁸I will bring them, and they will dwell within Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.”

⁹Yahweh of Armies says: “Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who were in the day that the foundation of the house of Yahweh of Armies was laid, even the temple, that it might be built. ¹⁰For before those days there was no wages for man nor any wages for an animal, neither was there any peace to him who went out or came in, because of the adversary. For I set all men everyone against his neighbor. ¹¹But now I will not be to the remnant of this people as in the former days,” says Yahweh of Armies. ¹²“For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. ¹³It shall come to pass that, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Don’t be afraid. Let your hands be strong.”

¹⁴For Yahweh of Armies says: “As I thought to do evil to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I didn’t repent, ¹⁵so again I have thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Don’t be afraid. ¹⁶These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, ¹⁷and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.

¹⁸The word of Yahweh of Armies came to me. ¹⁹Yahweh of Armies says: “The fasts of the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months shall be for the house of Judah joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”

²⁰Yahweh of Armies says: “Many peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come. ²¹The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, ‘Let’s go speedily to entreat the favor of Yahweh, and to seek Yahweh of Armies. I will go also.’ ²²Yes, many peoples and strong nations will come to seek Yahweh of Armies in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of Yahweh.” ²³Yahweh of Armies says: “In those days, ten men out of all the languages of the nations will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, ‘We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

¹A revelation.

²and Hamath, also, which borders on it,

³Tyre built herself a stronghold,

⁴Behold, the Lord will dispossess her,

⁵Ashkelon will see it, and fear;

⁶Foreigners will dwell in Ashdod,

⁷I will take away his blood out of his mouth,

⁸I will encamp around my house against the army,

⁹Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion!

¹⁰I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim

¹¹As for you also,

¹²Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope!

¹³For indeed I bend Judah as a bow for me.

¹⁴Yahweh will be seen over them.

¹⁵Yahweh of Armies will defend them.

¹⁶Yahweh their God will save them in that day as the flock of his people;

¹⁷For how great is his goodness,

¹Ask of Yahweh rain in the spring time,

²For the teraphim have spoken vanity,

³My anger is kindled against the shepherds,

⁴From him will come the cornerstone,

⁵They will be as mighty men,

⁶“I will strengthen the house of Judah,

⁷Ephraim will be like a mighty man,

⁸I will signal for them and gather them,

⁹I will sow them among the peoples.

¹⁰I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt,

¹¹He will pass through the sea of affliction,

¹²I will strengthen them in Yahweh.

¹Open your doors, Lebanon,

²Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen,

³A voice of the wailing of the shepherds!

⁴Yahweh my God says: “Feed the flock of slaughter. ⁵Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. ⁶For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says Yahweh; “but, behold, I will deliver every one of the men into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”

⁷So I fed the flock to be slaughtered, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor” and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock. ⁸I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. ⁹Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.” ¹⁰I took my staff Favor and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ¹¹It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was Yahweh’s word. ¹²I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. ¹³Yahweh said to me, “Throw it to the potter—the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in Yahweh’s house. ¹⁴Then I cut apart my other staff, Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Yahweh said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. ¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!”

¹A revelation of Yahweh’s word concerning Israel: Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says: ²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. ³It will happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it. ⁴In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror and his rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ⁵The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Yahweh of Armies their God.’

⁶In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem.

⁷Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. ⁸In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them. ⁹It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn. ¹¹In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. ¹²The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; ¹³the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; ¹⁴all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

¹“In that day there will be a fountain opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

²It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land. ³It will happen that when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in Yahweh’s name;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies. ⁴It will happen in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they won’t wear a hairy mantle to deceive, ⁵but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’ ⁶One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

⁷“Awake, sword, against my shepherd,

⁸It shall happen that in all the land,” says Yahweh,

⁹I will bring the third part into the fire,

¹Behold, a day of Yahweh comes, when your plunder will be divided within you. ²For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. ³Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. ⁴His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, making a very great valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ⁵You shall flee by the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel. Yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Yahweh my God will come, and all the holy ones with you.

⁶It will happen in that day that there will not be light, cold, or frost. ⁷It will be a unique day which is known to Yahweh—not day, and not night; but it will come to pass that at evening time there will be light.

⁸It will happen in that day that living waters will go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea. It will be so in summer and in winter.

⁹Yahweh will be King over all the earth. In that day Yahweh will be one, and his name one.

¹⁰All the land will be made like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up and will dwell in her place, from Benjamin’s gate to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. ¹¹Men will dwell therein, and there will be no more curse; but Jerusalem will dwell safely.

¹²This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth. ¹³It will happen in that day that a great panic from Yahweh will be among them; and they will each seize the hand of his neighbor, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his neighbor. ¹⁴Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered together: gold, silver, and clothing, in great abundance.

¹⁵A plague like this will fall on the horse, on the mule, on the camel, on the donkey, and on all the animals that will be in those camps.

¹⁶It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, and to keep the feast of booths. ¹⁷It will be that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn’t go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh of Armies, on them there will be no rain. ¹⁸If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which Yahweh will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths. ¹⁹This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths.

²⁰In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “HOLY TO YAHWEH”; and the pots in Yahweh’s house will be like the bowls before the altar. ²¹Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of Armies; and all those who sacrifice will come and take of them, and cook in them. In that day there will no longer be a Canaanite