1. In the eighth month, in the second year of the reign of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet, saying,
2. The Lord has been very angry with your fathers.
3. And thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord Almighty: Turn to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts.
4. And be ye not as your fathers, whom the prophets before charged, saying, Thus saith the Lord Almighty: Turn ye from your evil ways, and from your evil practices: but they hearkened not, and attended not to hearken to me, saith the Lord.
5. Where are your fathers, and the prophets? Will they live for ever?
6. But do ye receive my words and mine ordinances, all that I command by my Spirit to my servants the prophets, who lived in the days of your fathers; and they answered and said, As the Lord Almighty determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so has he done to us.
7. On the twenty-fourth day in the eleventh month, this is the month Sabat, in the second year of the reign of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, the son of Barachias, the son of Addo, the prophet, saying,
8. I saw by night, and behold a man mounted on a red horse, and he stood between the shady mountains; and behind him were red horses, and grey, and piebald, and white.
9. And I said, What are these, my lord? And the angel spoke with me said to me, I will shew thee what these things are.
10. And the man that stood between the mountains answered, and said to me, These are they whom the Lord has sent forth to go round the earth.
11. And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood between the mountains, and said, We have gone round all the earth, and, behold, all the earth is inhabited, and is at rest.
12. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord Almighty, how long wilt thou have no mercy on Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, which thou has disregarded [Gr. this seventieth year] these seventy years?
13. And the Lord Almighty answered the angel that spoke with me good words and consolatory sayings.
14. And the angel that spoke with me said to me, Cry out and say, Thus saith the Lord Almighty; I have been jealous for Jerusalem and Sion with great jealousy.
15. And I am very angry with the heathen that combine to attack her: forasmuch as I indeed was a little angry, but they combined to attack her for evil.
16. Therefore thus saith the Lord: I will return to Jerusalem with compassion; and my house shall be rebuilt in her, saith the Lord Almighty, and a measuring line shall yet be stretched out over Jerusalem.
17. And the angel that spoke with me said to me, Cry yet, and say, Thus saith the Lord Almighty; Yet shall cities be spread abroad through prosperity; and the Lord shall yet have mercy upon Sion, and shall choose Jerusalem.
18. And I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold four horns.
19. And I said to the angel that spoke with me, What are these things, my lord? And he said to me, These are the horns that have scattered Juda, and Israel, and Jerusalem.
20. And the Lord shewed me four artificers.
21. And I said, What are these coming to do? And he said, These are the horns that scattered Juda, and they broke Israel in pieces, and none of them lifted up his head: and these are come forth to sharpen them for their hands, even the four horns, the nations that lifted up the horn against the land of the Lord to scatter it.