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.

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.'" '"

And I {looked up} and I saw, and look, [there were] four horns!

and I asked, "What [are] these coming to do?" And he answered, saying, "These [are] the horns that scattered Judah, {so that no man} lifted up his head; but these have come to frighten them, to strike down the horns of the nations that lifted a horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."

And I {looked up} and I saw, and look, a man, and in his hand [was] a measuring rope!

And I asked, "Where [are] you going?" And he answered me, "To measure Jerusalem to see what [is] its width and what [is] its length."

And he said to him, "Run, say to that young man, 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited {like villages without walls} because of the multitude of people and animals in its midst.

And he answered and said to the ones standing {before} him, saying, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And he said to him, "See, I have taken away your guilt from you, and will clothe you [with] rich garments."

And he said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see, and look, {a lampstand all of gold}, and a bowl [was] on its top, and its seven lamps on it, and seven lips on [each of] the lamps that [are] on its top.

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 looked up again}, and I saw, and look!--a flying scroll!

And the angel who was speaking to me went out, and he said to me, "{Please look up}! See what this [is] going out."

And I {looked up} and saw, and look!--two women coming forward, and [the] wind [was] in their wings, and they had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky.

{I looked up again}, and I saw, and look!--four chariots coming out from between two mountains, and the mountains [were] mountains of bronze.

And he cried out to me and said to me, "See those going out to [the] north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country."

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.

"Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: 'When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, did you really fast for me?

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

{And then}, just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you will be a blessing. You must not be afraid; let your hands be strong!'"

{so again I have planned} in these days to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Do not be afraid!

Look! The Lord will drive it out and will hurl its outer ramparts into the sea, and it will be consumed by fire.

Ashkelon will see and will be afraid, and Gaza will writhe exceedingly, and Ekron [also], because its hope is ruined. And the king from Gaza will perish, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

And I will cut off [the] chariot from Ephraim, and [the] horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow will be cut down, and he will announce peace to the nations. His dominion [will be] from sea to sea, and from [the] River to [the] ends of [the] earth.

Because the household gods speak deceit, and those who practice divination see a lie, and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain. Therefore [the people] wander like sheep; they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

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.

Though I sow them among the nations, in the distant places they will remember me, and they will stay alive with their children, and they will return.

And he will pass through the sea of distress, and he will strike the waves of the sea, and all [the] depths of the Nile will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought low, and the scepter of Egypt will depart.

Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire will devour your cedars!

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.

So I said, "I will not shepherd you! The [one] dying will die, and the [one] to be destroyed will be destroyed. And the [ones] remaining, let them devour {the flesh of each other}."

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 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.

{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.

but he will say, "I [am] not a prophet; I am a tiller of the soil, for a man has acquired me since my youth."

And someone shall say to him, "What [are] these wounds {between your arms}?" and he will say, "Those I have received [in] the house of [the ones who] love me." '"

"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 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.'"

{And then} on that day, living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and the other half to the western sea; it will happen [both] in the summer and in the winter.

All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it will rise up high and it will stay in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of [the] former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

{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}.