In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berekiah, son of Iddo, saying,

"Yahweh {was very angry with your ancestors}.

You must say to them: 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Return to me," {declares} Yahweh of hosts, "and I will return to you," says Yahweh of hosts.

"Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Return from your evil ways and your evil deeds!" ' But they did not hear and they did not pay attention to me," {declares} Yahweh.

However, did not my words and my regulations which I commanded my servants the prophets overtake your ancestors? And they repented and said, 'Yahweh of hosts planned to do with us according to our ways, and according to our deeds so he has dealt with us.'" '"

On the twenty-fourth day of [the] eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah the prophet, son of Berekiah, son of Iddo, saying,

And the man standing between the myrtle shrubs answered and said, "These [are] those whom Yahweh has sent to patrol [the] earth."

And they answered the angel of Yahweh who was standing between the myrtle shrubs, and they said, "We have patrolled the earth, and look, all the earth {is dwelling in peace}."

The angel of Yahweh answered and said, "O Yahweh of hosts, {how long} will you have no compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, [with] which you showed fury these seventy years?"

[With] gracious and comforting words Yahweh answered the angel who was talking with me.

And the angel who was talking with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "{I am very jealous} for Jerusalem and for Zion!

Therefore, thus says Yahweh: "I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion. My temple will be built in it," {declares} Yahweh of hosts, "and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem." '

Proclaim again, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "My cities shall again overflow from prosperity, and Yahweh will comfort Zion again, and he will choose Jerusalem again." '"

Then Yahweh showed me four skilled craftsmen,

And I will be for it a wall of fire all around,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will be [the] glory in its midst.'"

"Woe! Woe! Flee from [the] land of [the] north," {declares} Yahweh, "for I have scattered you like [the] four winds of the heavens," {declares} Yahweh.

For thus said Yahweh of hosts, after glory he sent me against the nations plundering you: Truly, the one touching you [is] touching the apple of his eye.

"Yes, look! I [am] going to wave my hand against them, and they will become plunder for their servants, and you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for look, I [am] coming and I will dwell in your midst," {declares} Yahweh.

"Many nations will join themselves to Yahweh on that day, and they will be my people, and I will dwell in your midst. And you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me to you.

And Yahweh will inherit Judah [as] his portion {in the holy land}, and he will again choose Jerusalem.

Be silent, {all people}, before Yahweh, for he is roused from {his holy dwelling}."

And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing {before} the angel of Yahweh; and Satan was standing on his right to accuse him.

But Yahweh said to Satan, "Yahweh rebukes you, O Satan! Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! [Is] this not a stick snatched from the fire?"

And I said, "Let them put a clean headband on his head." And they put a clean headband on his head, and they clothed him [with] garments. And the angel of Yahweh [was] standing [by].

And the angel of Yahweh assured Joshua, saying,

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my requirements, then you will judge my house, and you will also guard my courtyards, and I will give to you passageways among these that are standing here.

For consider, the stone that {I set before} Joshua, on one stone [are] seven eyes. Look, {I am going to engrave an inscription on it},' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'and I will remove the guilt of that land in a single day.

On that day,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'you will invite {one another} under [the] vine and under [the] fig tree.'"

And he answered and said to me, "This [is] the word of Yahweh to Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by strength and not by power, but [only] by my Spirit,' says Yahweh of hosts.

And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

"The hands of Zerubbabel have founded this house, and his hands will finish it. And you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me to you.

For whoever has despised the day of small [things] will rejoice and will see the {plumb line} in the hand of Zerubbabel." These seven [are] the eyes of Yahweh which [are] ranging {throughout the whole earth}.

'I have sent it out,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of the one swearing {falsely by my name}, and it will spend the night in that house and will destroy it, with its timber and its stone.'"

And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

And say to him, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Look, [here is] a man whose name [is] Branch, and from his place he will sprout, and he will build the temple of Yahweh.

And he will build the temple of Yahweh, and he will bear majesty and will sit and rule on his throne. And he shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two of them." '

And the crown will be for Helem, for Tobijah, for Jedaiah, and for Hen son of Zephaniah, as a memorial in the temple of Yahweh.

And those who are far off will come and build the temple of Yahweh, and you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me to you. And it will happen if you will listen diligently to the voice of Yahweh your God."

{And then}, in the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah on [the] fourth [day] of the ninth month, [which is] Kislev.

And [the people of] Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech, and their men, to entreat {the favor} of Yahweh,

saying to the {priests of the house of Yahweh of hosts} and to the prophets, "Should I mourn in the fifth month and keep myself separate as I have done for these many years?"

And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying,

[Are] not [these] the words that Yahweh proclaimed {through} the former prophets, when Jerusalem and {its surrounding towns} were inhabited and at ease, and the Negev and the Shephelah were inhabited?'"

And the word of Yahweh came to Zechariah, saying,

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Judge [with] trustworthy justice, and show steadfast love and compassion {to one another}.

{They made their hearts adamant} in order not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets; [therefore] great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.

'Thus, just as I called and they would not hear, so they will call and I will not hear,' says Yahweh of hosts.

And the word of Yahweh of hosts came, saying,

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: '{I am exceedingly jealous for Zion}; I am jealous for it [with] great wrath.'

Thus says Yahweh: 'I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem will be called the faithful city, and the mountain of Yahweh of hosts [will be called] the holy mountain.'

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the public squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand {because of great age}.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: '[Even] if it seems impossible {to the remnant} of this people in those days, should it also seem impossible {to me}?' {declares} Yahweh of hosts.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Look! I [am] going to save my people from the land of the east, and from the land of the west,

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Let your hands be strong, you who are hearing in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who [were present] on [the] day {the foundation was laid for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of Yahweh of hosts}.

But now {I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days},' {declares} Yahweh of hosts.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Just as I planned to bring disaster on you when your ancestors provoked me to anger," says Yahweh of hosts, "and I did not regret [it],

Do not devise evil in your hearts [against] your neighbor, and do not love {a false oath}, because all these [are] things I hate," {declares} Yahweh.

And the word of Yahweh of hosts came to me, saying

"Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'The fast of the fourth [month], the fifth [month], the seventh [month], and the tenth [month] will be for the house of Judah jubilation and joy and merry festivals; therefore love truth and peace.'

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: '[It will happen] again that nations and the inhabitants of many cities will come.

And the inhabitants of one city will go to another [city], saying, "Let us go immediately to entreat {the favor of} Yahweh, to seek Yahweh of hosts--I also will go!"

And many peoples and powerful nations will come to seek Yahweh of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat {the favor of} Yahweh.'

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!" '"

An oracle. The word of Yahweh [is] against the land of Hadrach, and Damascus [is] its resting place. For to Yahweh belongs the eye of humankind, and all the tribes of Israel,

Then Yahweh will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning; and my Lord Yahweh will blow the trumpet, and he shall go out in the storm winds of [the] south.

Yahweh of hosts will defend them, and they will devour and subdue the slingstones; they will drink, they will make noise like wine, and they will be full like the sacrificial basin, [drenched] like the corners of an altar.

And Yahweh their God will save them on that day, as the flock of his people; for [they are like] the stones of a diadem, glittering on his land.

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.

{My anger burns} against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, because Yahweh of hosts watches over his flock, the house of Judah; and he will make them like his majestic horse in war.

And they will be like warriors, trampling in the mud of [the] streets in the battle. They will fight, because Yahweh [is] with them, and they will put to shame [the] riders on horses.

And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and the house of Joseph I will save. And I will bring them back, because I have compassion on them, and they will be as if I had not rejected them, for I [am] Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.

And [the people of] Ephraim will be like warrior, and their heart will be glad as [with] wine. And their children will see and rejoice; their heart will shout in exultation in Yahweh.

I will make them strong in Yahweh, and in his name they will walk, {declares} Yahweh.

Thus says Yahweh my God: "Shepherd the flock [doomed] to slaughter.

The ones buying them kill them and go unpunished, and the ones selling them say, 'Blessed [be] Yahweh, for I have become rich.' Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

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."

And it was broken on that day. Then the afflicted of the flock, the [ones who were] watching me, knew that it [was] the word of Yahweh.

And Yahweh said to me, "Throw it to the potter," {this noble price} [at] which I was valued by them!" So I took the thirty silver [shekels] and I threw them to the potter [in] the house of Yahweh.

And Yahweh said to me, "Take again the implements of a foolish shepherd.

An oracle. The word of Yahweh concerning Israel. "{Thus declares} Yahweh, who stretches out [the] heavens, founds [the] earth, and forms the spirit of humankind in its midst:

On that day,' {declares} Yahweh, 'I will strike every horse with confusion, and the one riding it with madness; but over the house of Judah {I will keep my eyes open}, and I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

And the clans of Judah will say {to themselves}, "The inhabitants of Jerusalem are a strength to us, through Yahweh of hosts, their God."

And Yahweh will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over Judah.

On that day Yahweh will put a shield around the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who stumbles among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David [will be] like God, like the angel of Yahweh, {before them}.

{And then}, on that day,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I will banish from the land.

{And then}, if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!" And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

"O sword, awake against my shepherd, against [the] man [who is] my associate," {declares} Yahweh of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the small [ones].

{And then} in all the land," {declares} Yahweh, "{two thirds} will be cut off and perish, and one third will be left alive in it.

And I will bring the [remaining] third into the fire, and I will refine them like [one] refines silver, and I will test them like [one] tests gold. They will call my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'Yahweh [is] my God.'"

Look! A day [is] coming for Yahweh, when your plunder will be divided in your midst.

Then Yahweh will go forth and fight against those nations, like {when he fights} on a day of battle.

And you will flee [by] the valley of my mountains, because the valley of [the] mountains will reach to Azal, and you will flee like you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. And Yahweh my God will come, [and] all [the] holy ones with him.

There shall be continuous day--it is known to Yahweh--not day and not night; and at evening time there will be light.

And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; on that day Yahweh will be one and his name one.

And this will be the plague [with] which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they [are] standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

{And then} on that day a great panic from Yahweh will fall on them, and {they will seize one another's hand}, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of {another}.

{And then} every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship [the] king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths.

{And then} whoever of the clans of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Yahweh of hosts, it will not rain on them.

And if the clan of Egypt will not go up and come in, on them will be that plague Yahweh inflicts on the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.