7 About three months later, Yahweh spoke again through the prophet Zekaryah (Zechariah son of Iddo’s son Berekyah) saying, 8 “I had a vision in the night, and was surprised to see a man riding on a red horse,[ref] and then he was standing among the myrtle trees that are in the valley, and behind him there were red, reddish-brown, and white horses.”[ref] 9 I asked, “What are these things, my master?”

Then that heavenly messenger who talked with me told me, “I’ll show you what those things are.”

10 Then the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “Those are the ones that Yahweh has sent out to roam throughout the world.”

11 They answered Yahweh’s messenger who stood among the myrtle trees, telling him, “We’ve been roaming throughout the world, and see, the whole world sits contentedly and is at peace.”

12 “Army commander Yahweh,” Yahweh’s messenger asked, “how long before you show compassion to Yerushalem and to the cities of Yehudah (Judah), which you’ve been angry with for the past seventy years?”

13 Then that messenger who’d talked with me was answered by Yahweh with kind and comforting words, 14 and that messenger told me, “Call out and say, ‘Army commander Yahweh says this: I’ve been very jealous for Yerushalem and for Tsiyyon (Zion). 15 I’m very angry with the countries that are at ease—I was only a little angry with them, but they made the disaster worse. 16 Therefore Yahweh says: I will show mercy Yerushalem again. My residence will be built within her, and the measuring line will be stretched out over her. That’s what army commander Yahweh declares.

17 “Again, call out and say, ‘Army commander Yahweh says this: My cities will once again overflow with goodness, and I will again comfort Tsiyyon and choose Yerushalem.’ ”