Zechariah Chapter 1

Conversional Version

¹ The Eighth Month, Second Year of Darius

A Message from the LORD to the Prophet Zechariah Son of Berechiah Son of Iddo

A Call to Return to the LORD

² “I was angry with your ancestors. ³ So tell the people, ‘The LORD of Hosts says, “Come back to me so I can come back to you. ⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors that former prophets told to come back from their sinful ways and deeds, but they didn’t pay any attention. ⁵ Where are those ancestors? Prophets don’t live forever, ⁶ but my message commanded through them did come to bear on your ancestors. As a result, they repented and said, ‘The LORD of Hosts has dealt with us the way he intended, according to our ways and deeds.’”’”                          

Zech 1:1-6

⁷ The Twenty-Fourth Day, Eleventh Month (Shebat), Second Year of Darius

A Message from the LORD to Zechariah

A Man Among the Murtle Trees

⁸ During the night I saw a man on a chestnut horse among some myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were chestnut, sorrel, and white horses and their riders. ⁹ I said, “Sir, what do those horses mean?”

The angel said, “I’ll show you.”

¹⁰ The man on the horse among the myrtle trees said, “The LORD has sent them to patrol the earth.”

¹¹ They answered the angel of the LORD, who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We’ve patrolled the earth. It’s peaceful and quiet.”

¹² The angel asked, “LORD of Hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the towns in Judah that you’ve been angry with these 70 years?”

¹³ The LORD answered him with gracious, reassuring words.

         ¹⁴So the angel told me,

“Declare that the LORD of Hosts says, ‘I’m jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, ¹⁵ but I’m angry with the nations that are at ease. While I was a little angry, they made the disaster worse. ¹⁶ So I’ll come back to Jerusalem with mercy. My Temple will be rebuilt there, and a measuring line will be stretched out over it for reconstructing it.’”

 ¹⁷ “Also say, ‘My towns will overflow with prosperity again. I^’ll comfort Zion again and choose Jerusalem once more.’”                                                                                                      

Zech 1:7-17

Four Horns and Four Blacksmiths

¹⁸ Then I looked up and saw four horns. ¹⁹ I asked the angel what they represented.

“The horns of the nations that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

²⁰ Then the LORD showed me four blacksmiths.

²¹ I asked what they were coming to do.

“The four horns scattered Judah and humbled it. But these blacksmiths have come to hammer down and destroy the nations that lifted up their horns to scatter the people of Judah.”                     

Zech 1:18-21