A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Zechariah 1
Zechariah 1 is the opening chapter of the thirty-eighth book of the Bible. The 21-verse chapter contains the prophet's opening call to repentance and the first two of eight night visions he receives.
The chapter opens with a date. In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, around late 520 BC, the word of the Lord comes to Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo. He is contemporary with Haggai.
The first oracle is a call to return. The Lord was very angry with the ancestors of the current generation, and those ancestors are now gone, along with the prophets who warned them. The current generation is to learn from that history and return to the Lord.
Three months later, on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, Zechariah receives the first of his eight night visions. He sees a man on a red horse standing among myrtle trees in a ravine, with red, sorrel, and white horses behind him. An angel explains that these are the ones the Lord has sent to patrol the earth. They report back that the whole world is at peace and at rest.
The Lord responds with intense feeling for Jerusalem and Zion. He has been very angry with the nations that punished Judah excessively beyond what he intended. He promises to return to Jerusalem with mercy, that his house will be rebuilt, and that the cities of Judah will overflow with prosperity.
The chapter closes with the second vision. Zechariah sees four horns, which represent the nations that scattered Judah, and four craftsmen, who have come to terrify and throw down those horns.
Verse 1. In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying:
Verse 2. “The LORD was very angry with your fathers.
Verse 3. So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’
Verse 4. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD.
Verse 5. Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Verse 6. But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”
Verse 7. On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.
Verse 8. I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
Verse 9. “What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”
Verse 10. Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.”
Verse 11. And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.”
Verse 12. Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”
Verse 13. So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.
Verse 14. Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion,
Verse 15. but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’
Verse 16. Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’
Verse 17. Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”
Verse 18. Then I looked up and saw four horns.
Verse 19. So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
Verse 20. Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
Verse 21. “What are these coming to do?” I asked. And He replied, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
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