1The Lord talked to the prophet Zechariah. It was in the 8th month of the 2nd year after Darius had become king. Zechariah was the son of Berekiah and Berekiah was the son of Iddo.
You must come back to the Lord
2The Lord said:
‘I was very angry with your forefathers.
3You must tell the people of Judah:
“The Lord who rules over all says:
You must come back to Me,
and then I will come back to you.”
4Don't do what your forefathers did.
The prophets who lived at that time
warned your forefathers.
They told them that the Lord
who rules over all said:
“You must stop living in a wrong way,
and stop doing things that are not right.”
But your forefathers did not listen to Me.
5And where are they now? They are dead.
Even the prophets do not live forever.
6I told the prophets, my servants,
what they must say to your forefathers,
and it happened as I said it would.
Then your forefathers came back to Me
and said: “The Lord who rules over all
said He would punish us because
we have lived wrongly, and we have sinned.
And He did punish us.” ’
The Lord will be good to Jerusalem again
7The Lord talked to the prophet Zechariah again. It was on the 24th day of the 11th month in the 2nd year after Darius had become king. It was the month of Shebat. Zechariah was the son of Berekiah and Berekiah was the son of Iddo.
8It was at night and the Lord showed me, Zechariah, something. I saw a man sitting on a red horse. He was among the myrtle trees down in the valley and behind him were some more people on red, brown and white horses. 9There was an angel with me, and he told me what everything meant. I asked the angel: ‘Sir, why are these people and the horses here?’
The angel told me: ‘I will show you why they are here.’
10The man who was standing among the myrtle trees said: ‘The Lord has sent those people. They must go and look what is happening all over the world.’
11The people on the horses talked to the angel of the Lord, the man who was standing among the myrtle trees. They said: ‘We have been everywhere on earth and everything is quiet and calm on earth.’
12The angel of the Lord then said: ‘Lord, You who rule over everything, You were angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem for 70 years. Please feel sorry for them now and be good to them.’
13The Lord talked to the angel who had to tell me what everything meant. The Lord told him that all would be well with the people of Judah and Jerusalem again. 14The angel then said to me: ‘You must shout_loudly and tell them that the Lord who rules over all says: “I am very angry because of what the other nations did to Jerusalem. 15I am very angry with the people who thought they could do what they wanted to do. I was only a little angry with the people of Jerusalem, but the other people made them suffer a lot. It was too much.
16That is why I will again be good to the people of Jerusalem. They will build my temple and they will also build the city of Jerusalem again.” ’
This is what the Lord who rules over all says. 17‘You must shout_loudly again and tell them that the Lord who rules over all says: “The towns and cities of Judah belong to Me. All will be well with the people in these towns. I will again be good to the people of Jerusalem. I will again say that Jerusalem is my city.” ’
The 4 horns and 4 artisans
18The Lord showed me something more. I saw 4 horns. 19I asked the angel who had to tell me what everything meant: ‘Why are they here?’
The angel said to me: ‘The horns are the leaders of the nations who took away the people of Judah, Israel and Jerusalem to other lands.’
20Then the Lord showed me 4 artisans, 21and I asked: ‘What must they do?’
The angel said: ‘Those horns are the leaders of the nations. They took away the people of Judah from their land and they humiliated the people. These artisans have come to cut off the horns. They must kill the leaders of these nations, who have attacked the land_of_Judah and have taken the people away.’
