⁷On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo:

FIRST VISION: HORSEMEN

⁸I looked out in the night and saw a man riding on a chestnut^A horse.ⁱ He was standing among the myrtle trees in the valley.^B Behind him were chestnut, brown, and white horses. ⁹I asked, “What are these, my lord?”

The angel who was talking to me replied, “I will show you what they are.”

¹⁰Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.”

¹¹They reported to the angel of the Lord standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and right now the whole earth is calm and quiet.”^j

¹²Then the angel of the Lord responded, “How long, Lord of Armies, will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah that you have been angry with these seventy years?”^k ¹³The Lord replied with kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.

¹⁴So the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim: The Lord of Armies says: I am extremely jealous^l for Jerusalem and Zion. ¹⁵I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease,^m for I was a little angry, but they made the destruction worse.^C ¹⁶Therefore, this is what the Lord says: In mercy, I have returned to Jerusalem; my house will be rebuilt within it—this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies—and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.ⁿ

¹⁷“Proclaim further: This is what the Lord of Armies says: My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will once more comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.”^o

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Footnotes

A red
B depths
C they helped for evil

Cross references

i Rv 6:4
j Jos 11:23; Jdg 5:31; Is 14:7
k Ps 13:1; 79:5; 89:46; 90:13; Jr 25:11–12; 29:10
l Ex 20:5; 34:14; Dt 4:24; 5:9; 6:15; Jos 24:19; Nah 1:2; Zch 8:2
m Is 34:2; Nah 1:2
n 2Kg 21:13; Is 28:17; 34:11; Lm 2:8; Am 7:17
o 2Ch 6:6; Is 40:1; Zch 2:12