Zechariah 1:7–17

The Prophet’s Vision of the Horses

⁷In the second year that Darius was emperor, on the 24th day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat), the Lord gave me a message in a vision at night. ^8*I saw someone riding a red horse. He had stopped among some myrtle trees in a valley, and behind him were other horses—red, dappled, and white. ⁹I asked him, “Sir, what do these horses mean?”

He answered, “I will show you what they mean. ¹⁰The Lord sent them to go and inspect the earth.”

¹¹They reported to the angel: “We have been all over the world and have found that the whole world lies helpless and subdued.”

¹²Then the angel said, “Almighty Lord, you have been angry with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah for seventy years now. How much longer will it be before you show them mercy?”

¹³The Lord answered the angel with comforting words, ¹⁴and the angel told me to proclaim what the Lord Almighty had said: “I have a deep love and concern for Jerusalem, my holy city, ¹⁵and I am very angry with the nations that enjoy quiet and peace. For while I was holding back my anger against my people, those nations made the sufferings of my people worse. ¹⁶So I have come back to Jerusalem to show mercy to the city. My Temple will be restored, and the city will be rebuilt.”

¹⁷The angel also told me to proclaim: “The Lord Almighty says that his cities will be prosperous again and that he will once again help Jerusalem and claim the city as his own.”