1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord was made to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, prophet, and said,

2The Lord is wroth on your fathers with wrathfulness [or wrath].

3And thou shalt say to them, The Lord of hosts saith these things. Be ye turned again to me, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall be turned again to you, saith the Lord of hosts.

4Be ye not as your fathers, to which the former prophets cried, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, Be ye converted from your evil ways, and your worst thoughts; and they heard not, neither took attention to me, saith the Lord of hosts.

5Where be your fathers and prophets? whether they shall live without end?

6Nevertheless my words and my lawful things, which I commanded to my servants prophets, whether they caught not your fathers? And they were turned again, and said, As the Lord of hosts thought for to do to us by our ways, and by our findings, he did to us.

7In the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month Sebat, that is, January, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord was made to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, prophet, and said,

8I saw by night, and lo! a man going on a red horse; and he stood betwixt places where myrtles waxed, that were in the depth, and after him were horses red, diverse, and white.

9And I said, My lord, who be these? And an angel of the Lord said to me, that spake in me, I shall show to thee what these be.

10And the man that stood betwixt places where myrtles waxed, answered, and said, These it be, which the Lord sent, that they walk through earth.

11And they answered to the angel of the Lord, that stood betwixt places where myrtles waxed, and said, We have walked through earth, and lo! all earth is inhabited, and resteth.

12And the angel of the Lord answered, and said, Lord of hosts, how long shalt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, and on [the] cities of Judah, to which thou art wroth? This now is the seventieth year.

13And the Lord answered to the angel, that spake in me, good words, and words of comfort.

14And the angel that spake in me, said to me, Cry thou, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, I loved Jerusalem and Zion in great fervor;

15and in great wrath I shall be wroth on rich folks; for I was wroth a little, forsooth they helped into evil.

16Therefore the Lord saith these things, I shall turn again to Jerusalem in mercies. Mine house shall be builded in it, saith the Lord of hosts; and a plummet shall be stretched out on Jerusalem.

17Yet cry thou, saying, The Lord of hosts saith these things, Yet my cities shall flow with goods, and yet the Lord shall comfort Zion, and yet he shall choose Jerusalem.

18And I raised mine eyes, and I saw, and lo! four horns.

19And I said to the angel, that spake in me, What be these? And he said to me, These be horns that winnowed Judah, and Israel, and Jerusalem.

20And the Lord showed to me four smiths.

21And I said, What come these for to do? Which spake, saying, These be the horns, that winnowed Judah by all men, and no man of them raised his head; and these came for to make them afeared, that they cast down the horns of heathen men, which raised the horn on the land of Judah, for to scatter it.