1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:2The LORD was very angry with your fathers.3And say to them, Thus says the LORD of Hosts: Return to me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.4Do not be like your fathers, to whom the earlier prophets called out, saying, Thus says the LORD of Hosts: Return now from your evil ways and your evil deeds. Yet they neither heard nor listened to me, declares the LORD.5Your fathers—where are they? And the prophets—do they live forever?6But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they turned and said, Just as the LORD of Hosts planned to do to us according to our ways and our deeds, so he has done with us.7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (that is, the month of Shebat) in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, the prophet, saying:8I saw during the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtles that were in the ravine, with red, sorrel, and white horses behind him.9And I said, "What are these, my lord?" And the messenger who spoke with me said to me, "I will show you what these are."10And the man standing among the myrtles answered and said, These are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the land.11And they answered the messenger of the LORD who stood among the myrtles and said, We have patrolled the land, and behold, the whole land remains inhabited and at rest.12Then the messenger of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of Hosts, how long will you not have compassion on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been indignant these seventy years?13And the LORD answered the messenger who spoke with me with good words, comforting words.14And the messenger who spoke with me said to me, Proclaim, saying, Thus says the LORD of Hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy.15And I am very angry with the complacent nations, for while I was only a little angry, they helped toward harm.16Therefore thus says the LORD: I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house will be built in it, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.17Proclaim again, saying, Thus says the LORD of Hosts: My cities will again overflow with good, and the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.