"The LORD was very angry with your ancestors.

"I stared into the night, and there was a man mounted on a red horse! The horse was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him there were red, brown, and white horses."

Then I asked, "Who are these, sir?" The messenger who was talking to me answered, "I will tell you who these are."

So the LORD answered the angel who was speaking to me with kind and comforting words.

Then the angel who was speaking to me told me, "Announce this: "This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "I have a deep concern for Jerusalem, a great concern for Zion.

I am deeply angry with the nations who are complacent, with whom I was only a little displeased but they made things worse!"

I asked the angel who was talking to me, "What are those?" So he answered me, "Those are the forces that have dispersed Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

Look! That angel who was talking to me left, and another angel came forward to meet him.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In pursuit of glory I was sent to the nations who plundered you, because whoever injures you injures the pupil of my eye.

Now Joshua was wearing filthy clothes as he stood in the presence of the angel.

Then I said, "Let them place a pure diadem on his head." So they placed the pure diadem on his head and clothed him with fine garments while the angel of the LORD was standing beside them.

Look, a round lead cover was being lifted, and there was one woman seated inside the basket!

So I asked the angel who was talking to me, "Where are they taking the basket?"

Isn't this what the LORD proclaimed through the former prophets, when a prosperous Jerusalem was inhabited, as were its surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah?'"

"I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.'" Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert.

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Be strong so the Temple can be built, you who are now listening to this message spoken by the prophets when the foundation was laid to the Temple of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

Before then, everyone was unemployed even the draft animals and no one was safe coming or going because of the enemy, because I caused everyone to oppose each other.

Then I took the staff that I had named "Pleasant" and broke it, showing I was breaking my covenant that I had made with all of the people.

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.