In the eighth month of the second year of the reign of Darius, this message from the LORD came to Berechiah's son Zechariah, the grandson of Iddo the prophet:

Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month Shebat) in the second year of the reign of Darius, this message from the LORD came to Berechiah's son Zechariah, the grandson of Iddo the prophet:

Then the Angel of the Lord responded, “How long, Lord of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah that You have been angry with these 70 years?”

Again call, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Again do my cities overflow from good, And Jehovah hath again comforted Zion, And He hath fixed again on Jerusalem.'

Then I said, What have these come to do? And he said, These are the horns which sent Judah in flight, and kept him from lifting up his head: but these men have come to send fear on them and to put down the nations who are lifting up their horns against the land of Judah to send it in flight.

and he saith unto him, 'Run, speak unto this young man, saying: Unwalled villages inhabit doth Jerusalem, From the abundance of man and beast in her midst.

Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.

Ho! Zion, go in flight from danger, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.

Hush, all flesh, because of Jehovah, For He hath been roused up from His holy habitation!'

And Jehovah saith unto the Adversary: 'Jehovah doth push against thee, O Adversary, Yea, push against thee doth Jehovah, Who is fixing on Jerusalem, Is not this a brand delivered from fire?'

And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

And let them put a clean head-dress on his head. So they put a clean head-dress on his head, clothing him with clean robes: and to him he said, See, I have taken your sin away from you.

And the angel [who was] talking with me returned, and he wakened me as one who is wakened from his sleep.

And two olive trees upon it, one from the right of the bowl and one from its left.

Then he said to me, “This [continuous supply of oil] is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel [prince of Judah], saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of whom the oil is a symbol],’ says the Lord of hosts.

‘What are you, O great mountain [of obstacles]? Before Zerubbabel [who will rebuild the temple] you will become a plain (insignificant)! And he will bring out the capstone [of the new temple] with loud shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”

Then this message from the LORD came to me again:

And I questioned him further, “What are the two olive branches beside the two gold conduits, from which golden oil pours out?”

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of the whole land; for everyone who steals will be cut off according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears [oaths falsely] shall be cut off according to the writing on the other side.

I asked, "What is it?" And he replied, "It is a basket for measuring grain that is moving away from here." Moreover, he said, "This is their 'eye' throughout all the earth."

And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass.

And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.

And the strong ones went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth. And he said, Get you from here. Walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth.

Then this message from the LORD came to me:

Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon, and come thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah;

Take silver and gold [from them], and make an ornate crown and set it on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

and speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, Behold a man whose name is the Branch; and he shall grow up from his own place, and he shall build the temple of Jehovah:

During the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, a message from the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month Kislev.

Now they of Beth-el had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech to make a request for grace from the Lord,

speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the Lord of hosts and to the prophets, saying, “[Now that I am returned from exile] shall I weep in the fifth month [mourning the destruction of the temple], and fast as I have done these many years [in Babylon]?”

Then this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies came to me:

This message from the LORD came to Zechariah again:

Do not be hard on the widow, or the child without a father, on the man from a strange country, or on the poor; let there be no evil thought in your heart against your brother.

But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder and {stopped their ears from listening}.

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

But I stormed them away on all the nations whom they did not know. And the land has been wasted behind them, from passing and from returning; for they made the land of desire a waste.

This is this message from the LORD of the Heavenly Armies:

Thus said Jehovah of armies: Yet shall old men and old women sit in the broad places of Jerusalem, and a man his support in his hand from the multitude of days.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country;

Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets that were in the day that the foundation of the house of Jehovah of hosts was laid, even the temple, that it might be built.

For before those days there was no wage for people or for animals, and there was no safety from the enemy for those who went out or those who came in, and I sent each person against {one another}.

But I will be different now to this remnant of my people from the way I was in those days,' says the Lord who rules over all,

Once again this message from the LORD come to me:

And the people of one town go to another and say, Let us certainly go with a request for grace from the Lord, and to give worship to the Lord of armies, then I will go with you.

And great peoples and strong nations will come to give worship to the Lord of armies in Jerusalem and to make requests for grace from the Lord.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'In those days ten men from {all the nations of every language} will take hold of the hem of a Judean man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard [that] God [is] with you!" '"

A declaration: this message from the LORD in the land of Hadrach, with Damascus its confederate, because the eyes of humanity will look to the LORD, along with those of all the tribes of Israel.

For Tyre built herself an [impregnable] stronghold [on an island offshore],
And she has heaped up silver like dust
And gold like the mire of the streets.

Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.

And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.

Then I will surround my temple to protect it like a guard from anyone crossing back and forth; so no one will cross over against them anymore as an oppressor, for now I myself have seen it.

And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.

As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have set free thy prisoners from the pit wherein is no water.

Return to the stronghold, you prisoners, with hope; today I declare that I will return double what was taken from you.

Jehovah of hosts will defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as from wine; and they shall be filled like a bowl, like the corners of the altar.

Ask rain from Yahweh in the season of [the] spring rain-- Yahweh, who makes storm clouds, and he gives showers of rain to them, to everyone vegetation in the field.

From him shall come forth the corner-stone, from him the nail, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler together.

“Ephraim will be like a mighty man,
And their heart will be glad as if from wine;
Indeed, their children will see it and be glad,
Their heart will rejoice in the Lord.

And I have brought them back from the land of Egypt, And from Asshur I do gather them, And unto the land of Gilead and Lebanon I do bring them in, And there is not found for them space.

whose buyers slay them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them nor protect them [from the wolves].

For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land," {declares} Yahweh. "Look, I [am] going to cause humankind to fall, each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they will devastate the land, and I will not deliver [anyone] from their hand."

It was broken at that time so the oppressed of the flock who were observing me would know that it had been a message from the LORD.

A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark.

A declaration: a message from the LORD to Israel. "The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who frames the spirit of man within himself, declares,

At that time, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for those who live in Jerusalem so they can be cleansed from sin and ceremonial impurity.

“In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the people of Jerusalem for [cleansing from] sin and impurity.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I cut off the names of the idols from the land, And they are not remembered any more, And also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I cause to pass away from the land.

But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you (Jerusalem) will be divided in your midst.

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

In that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from the east to the west by a very large valley, and half of the mountain will move toward the north and half of it toward the south.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

If anyone from the families of the earth will not come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, there will be no rain for them.

If the people of Egypt do not come to Jerusalem to take part, they will have no annual Nile overflow. A plague will come from the LORD to strike the nations who do not come to observe the Festival of Tents.

And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a {trader} in the house of Yahweh of hosts on that day.