The vision of four chariots

6 I looked up again, and in the vision I saw four chariots coming toward me from between two bronze mountains. 2 Red horses pulled the first chariot, and black horses pulled the second chariot. 3 White horses pulled the third chariot, and strong, spotted horses pulled the fourth chariot. 4 I asked the angel who had been speaking to me, “Sir, what do those chariots mean?”

5 The angel replied, “These are the four spirits that serve the Lord who rules the entire earth. They go out across the sky in four directions. 6 The chariot with the black horses will go north, the white horses will follow them, and the spotted horses will go south.”

7 When those strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth. The angel said to them, “Go, patrol the earth!” So they went and patrolled the earth.

8 Then the angel called out to me, “Look, the chariots that went north have satisfied my anger in the land of the north.”

Yahweh commands Zechariah to crown Joshua

9 Then Yahweh gave me another message. 10 He said, “Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah will bring silver and gold from the people who returned from exile in Babylon. On the day they arrive, go to the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah. 11 Take some of the silver and gold from those men and make crowns. Then place them on the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. 12 Tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, says:

There is a man whose title is the Branch, because he will grow up like a new branch from the stump of David’s family.

He will emerge from where he is, and he will build the temple of Yahweh.

13 Yes, he will build Yahweh’s temple.

He will receive great honor,

and he will sit on his throne and rule.

He will also serve as a priest while he sits on his throne,

and there will be peace because he is both king and priest.’

14 The crowns will remain in the temple of Yahweh to remind people of what Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah did. 15 People who live far away will come and help build Yahweh’s temple. When that happens, you will know that Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, has sent me to you. This will happen if you truly obey what Yahweh your God commands.”

7 When Darius had been the emperor for almost four years, on the fourth day of Kislev (which was the ninth month in their calendar), Yahweh gave me another message. 2 The people of the city of Bethel sent two men, Sharezer and Regem-Melek, along with some other men, to consult with Yahweh 3 by asking the priests at Yahweh’s temple and the prophets if they should continue their years long practice of mourning the anniversary of the destruction of the temple by fasting during the fifth month.

4 Then Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, gave me, Zechariah, a message. 5 He told me to say this to the priests and, in fact, to everyone in the whole land: “Tell me whom you were honoring when you did not eat but went around in dirty clothing. It was not me you honored in the fifth and seventh months these 70 years. 6 And when you feasted at my temple, you did it just to have a good time, not to honor me. 7 This is exactly what I kept telling the former prophets to proclaim to the people, when the people in Jerusalem and the nearby towns were many and prosperous, and when people also lived in the southern Judean wilderness, and in the foothills to the west.”

8 Yahweh gave another message to me: 9 “Tell the people that this is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, said to your ancestors: ‘I told them to do what is just, to act faithfully and mercifully toward each other, in order to honor my covenant with you. 10 I told them not to oppress widows or orphans or foreigners or poor people. I said to not even think about doing evil to anyone else.’

11 But the people refused to obey Yahweh. They resisted him. They did not even listen to what he said. 12 He had given these messages for his Spirit to repeat to the prophets in earlier times. The prophets were meant to speak these messages to the people. But the people were very stubborn; they would not listen to the law of Moses or to any message from God. So Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, became very angry with them.

13 In those times, when Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, called to the people, they refused to listen. So he said, ‘In exactly the same way, I will refuse to listen when they call to me. 14 And I will scatter them among many nations, nations that they have never been to before. I will scatter them as a storm scatters leaves. After they are gone, their own land will be empty, with no one living there. No one will travel through it and no one will come back to it, because they have turned it, their most pleasant land, into a wilderness.’ ”

Yahweh promises to bless Jerusalem

8 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, gave me another message: 2 This is what I, Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, say: “I love the people of Jerusalem; I love them very much, and I am very angry with their enemies.”

3 So this is what I, Yahweh, say: “Some day I will return to Mount Zion and I will live there. At that time, people will call Jerusalem The City of Faithful People, and they will call the mountain that Yahweh, the commander of angel armies, possesses The Sacred Mountain.”

4 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this: “Some day old men and old women will again sit along the streets of Jerusalem, each of them holding a cane because they are very old. 5 Boys and girls will fill the city streets, playing there.”

6 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this: “When those things happen, it will seem marvelous to the people who are still alive, but it certainly will not seem marvelous to me!”

7 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, also says this: “Pay attention! I will rescue my people from countries in the east and in the west, wherever they are. 8 I will bring them back, and they will live in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will be faithful to them and treat them fairly.”

9 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this: “When people laid the foundation for my temple, there were prophets there who gave messages from me. Some of you people heard what those prophets said. So be brave while you are building the temple, in order that you may finish building it. 10 Before that time, no one could earn any wages for their work, and no one could hire animals for work because there was no money. No one was safe going about their daily activities because of enemies, since I caused everyone to fight against one another. 11 But now I will act differently toward you people who are still alive than I did previously.” That is what Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, says.

12 “Instead, everything will go well for them: planting time will be peaceful, grapevines will produce grapes, good crops will grow in the fields, and rain will fall from the sky. I will give all these things to the people of this nation who have survived. 13 You people of Judah and Israel, right now, the people of other nations think of you when they say what a curse means. But I will rescue you, and I will give you so many good things that they will think of you when they say what a blessing means. So be brave; work hard to finish building the temple.”

14 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this: “When your ancestors caused me to become very angry, I did not change my mind about that. Instead, I indeed punished them. 15 But now I will do something different. I am planning to do good things to the people of Jerusalem and other towns in Judah again. So do not be afraid. 16 These are the things that you should do: You should always tell the truth to each other. In the courts, your judges must make decisions according to what is correct and fair. 17 Do not plan to do evil things to others, and do not approve of swearing false accusations against others. I hate all those things,” says Yahweh.

18 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, said this to me: 19 “I tell you: the times when you people of Judah abstain from food during the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months of each year will become times when you celebrate pleasant and joyful festivals instead. But you must want to speak truthfully and to be peaceful.”

20 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this: “Some day people from many people groups and foreign cities will come here to Jerusalem. 21 People from one city will go to the people in another city and say, ‘Quick! Let us go together to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh and request him to bless us; we ourselves are going.’ 22 And people from many people groups and from powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to and request Yahweh, the commander of angel armies, to bless them and to worship him.”

23 Yahweh, the commander of the angel armies, also says this: “At that time, many people from every people group, speaking their own language, will come and firmly grab the fringe of robe belonging to a man from Judah’s tribe. They will say to him, ‘We want to be near you because we have heard people say that God is with you.’ ”

9 This is another message that Yahweh gave to me:

He pays close attention to all people everywhere,

and especially to all the Israelite tribes.

This message is about the region of Hadrach

and the city of Damascus, where he is staying.

2 Hamath also is a nearby city,

as are the cities of Tyre and Sidon,

whose people think that they are very wise.

3 The people of Tyre have built a strong wall around their city,

and they have piled up as much silver and gold

as if it were dust and mud in the streets.

4 But look out! The Lord will take away everything that the people of Tyre own,

and destroy their merchant ships out at sea,

and an enemy army will burn their city down.

5 When the people of the city of Ashkelon see that happen, they will be scared.

The people of the city of Gaza will also tremble in great anguish,

and the people of the city of Ekron will tremble too, because they will no longer expect anything good to happen.

There will no longer be a king ruling in Gaza,

and no one will live in Ashkelon anymore.

6 People of mixed descent will live in the city of Ashdod,

and so I will cause the Philistine people to no longer be proud.

7 I will no longer allow them to eat meat that still has blood in it,

and I will no longer allow them to eat the disgusting food that they offered to their idols.

Then the Philistine people who survive will worship me and become my people,

like one of the clans in Judah.

The people of the city of Ekron will become my people, just as the people of the city of Jebus did.

8 I will protect my temple like an army that guards it,

so that no enemy soldiers can march through it or come back to attack it.

No one who oppresses my people will ever invade them again,

because now I am watching over my people carefully.

9 You people of Jerusalem, rejoice very much!

Shout joyfully everyone in Jerusalem!

Look! Your king is coming to you.

He does what is right, and God will give him victory.

He is humble, and he will ride into the city on a donkey,

on a young donkey.

10 I will take away the chariots from the region of Ephraim

and the war horses from the city of Jerusalem,

and I will destroy the bows that soldiers use in war.

Your king will tell the nations that they will now live peacefully.

He will rule over all the earth,

from one sea to the farthest sea,

and from the Euphrates River to the most distant places on the earth.

11 As for you people of Jerusalem,

because of the blood of the animals that the priests killed when I made my covenant with you, I will set your people free,

the ones who suffer like prisoners stuck in a dry pit that has no water in it.

12 You people who are like prisoners but who still confidently expect me to help you,

return to your land, where you will be safe.

Today I am telling you that I will give back to you twice as much as you have lost.

13 I will use the people of Judah to fight for me like a warrior uses a bow,

and I will use the people of Ephraim like the arrows in that bow.

People of Jerusalem, I will stir up your young men to fight against the army of Greece,

and I will make you as powerful as a warrior’s sword.

14 Then Yahweh will appear above his people,

and the arrows that he shoots will flash like lightning.

Yahweh my Lord will blow a trumpet to signal the attack,

and he will advance fiercely like a storm blowing from the south.

15 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, will protect his people.

His soldiers will completely defeat their enemies who attack them with slingstones.

Those soldiers will shout in victory and celebrate as noisily as men who have drunk much wine.

They will be as full of joy as the bowls that the priests fill with blood and pour out on the corners of the altar.

16 On that day, Yahweh, the God his people worship, will rescue them,

just as a shepherd rescues his flock of sheep from danger.

They will be as precious to him as sparkling jewels in a crown shining over his land.

17 How wonderful and how beautiful everything will be!

The young men will grow strong from eating plenty of grain,

and the young women will grow strong from drinking plenty of new wine.”

10 Ask Yahweh to send rain in the springtime, because he is the one who makes the storm clouds. He gives people showers of rain, and he makes plants grow in their fields. 2 The household idols that people consult tell them worthless things, and those who practice divination see false visions; the dreams they describe are lies, and the comfort they give is empty. So the people wander about helplessly and suffer, because they have no leader to guide and protect them, just as sheep suffer when they have no shepherd.

3 Yahweh says, “I am very angry with the leaders of my people, and I will punish those rulers. I, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, care for my people, the people of Judah, as a shepherd cares for his flock, and I will make them strong, like a splendid warhorse in battle. 4 All their rulers will come from the tribe of Judah. Some will support the people, as a cornerstone supports a building; some will hold them together, as a tent peg holds up a tent; and some will lead them in battle, as a warrior holds his bow in war. Yes, from Judah every ruler will come. 5 Those rulers and their people will be like mighty warriors who trample their enemies into the mud of the streets during battle. They will fight and win, because I, Yahweh, am with them, and they will completely defeat even their most powerful enemies.

6 Because I am Yahweh their God and I pity my people, I will answer them when they pray to me. I will make the people of Judah strong, and I will rescue the people of Israel. I will bring them back to their own land. Then it will be like I had never rejected them. 7 The people of Ephraim will be strong like warriors, and they will be as happy as people who have drunk wine. Their children will see it and be glad; they will celebrate loudly because of what I, Yahweh, have done.

8 I will whistle to signal my people, and I will gather them together, because I have rescued them; and they will become as numerous as they were before. 9 Even though I scatter my people among the nations, they will remember me even in those distant lands. They and their children will survive, and they will return to their land. 10 I will bring them back from Egypt in the south and gather them from Assyria in the north. I will bring them to the region of Gilead and to Lebanon, and there will not be enough room for them all.

11 Even though my people’s troubles seem like a terrifying sea I will bring them safely home. I will subdue those troubles completely, as if I were striking down the waves of the sea and drying up the deep waters of the Nile River. I will humble the proud army of Assyria, and I will take away the royal power of Egypt. 12 I will make my people strong by my power, and they will live faithfully, honoring my authority. That is what I, Yahweh, declare.”

11 Open your gates people living in Lebanon,

because you will not be able to stop the fire from burning up your cedar trees!

2 The cypress trees will be like people who are wailing,

because the mighty cedar trees have fallen; enemies have destroyed those magnificent trees!

The oak trees in the region of Bashan will also be like people wailing,

because enemies have cut down the trees of their thick forest!

3 Listen to the shepherds crying,

because enemies have ruined the rich pastures where they fed their flocks!

Listen to the young lions roaring,

because enemies have destroyed the thickets along the Jordan River where they lived!

4 This is what Yahweh my God said to me: “Act as a shepherd for a flock of sheep that people are about to slaughter. 5 The people who buy the sheep slaughter them, and no one punishes those buyers. The people who sell the sheep say that they praise Yahweh because they are becoming rich. Not even the shepherds pity the sheep. 6 That is because I, Yahweh, will no longer pity the people who live in this land. That is what I, Yahweh, declare. Instead, I will let everyone’s neighbors and their king dominate them. Those people will devastate this land, and I will not rescue anyone from their control.”

7 So I became like a shepherd of a flock of sheep that people were about to slaughter. I took good care of the sheep, especially the weakest ones. Then I took two shepherd’s staffs. I named one staff “Favor” and the other staff “Union.” And I took care of the sheep. 8 In one month I got rid of the three other shepherds.

I became impatient with them, and they also hated me. 9 So I said, “I will no longer be your shepherd. Let the sheep that are dying die, and let the sheep that are perishing perish. And let those that remain destroy each other.”

10 Then I took my staff that I had named “Favor,” and I broke it, to signify that Yahweh was canceling the covenant that he had made with all the peoples. 11 So the covenant ended on that day. Then the afflicted people of the flock who were watching me knew that this was truly a message from Yahweh. 12 I said to them, “If it seems right to you, pay me my wages; but if not, do not pay me.” So they weighed out my wages: thirty pieces of silver.

13 Then Yahweh said to me, “Throw that money to the potter! What a pathetic price they decided to pay for me!” So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the temple of Yahweh. 14 Then I broke my second staff, the one that I had named “Union,” to signify that the close family relationship between the people of Judah and the people of Israel would end.

15 Then Yahweh said to me, “Take again the tools that a foolish shepherd uses, 16 because surely I am going to appoint a shepherd over the people in this land, one who will not care for them. He will not help the sheep that are perishing, he will not search for the ones that have strayed, he will not heal the ones that are injured, and he will not feed the healthy ones. Instead, he will eat the meat of the fattest sheep and tear off their hooves.

17 Terrible things will happen to that worthless shepherd,

who abandons the flock that he should care for!

Enemies will attack his arm and his right eye with a sword!

As a result, his arm will lose all its strength,

and his right eye will become completely blind!”

12 This is a message that Yahweh gave concerning Israel. Yahweh, the one who created the sky, who formed the earth, and who breathed life into humanity, solemnly declares this:

2 “Listen! I am about to cause the city of Jerusalem to be like an intoxicating drink that makes all the nations around it stagger helplessly when their armies besiege Jerusalem and region of Judah. 3 Then every nation on earth will come attack Jerusalem, but I will make it like a solid rock that will badly hurt everyone that comes to attack it. 4 This is what I, Yahweh, declare: On that day I will cause all the horses of the enemy armies to panic and all their riders to go insane. I will watch over the people of Judah and protect them, but I will cause all the horses of those enemy nations to go blind. 5 Then the leaders of the clans of Judah will say to themselves that the people who live in Jerusalem are strong because Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, is their God. 6 On that day I will make the leaders of the clans of Judah able to destroy their enemies completely and quickly. They will defeat all the surrounding peoples on every side of them, and the people of Jerusalem will live safely in their own city again.”

7 Yahweh will first rescue the people who live in the villages of Judah, so that the descendants of King David and the people who live in Jerusalem will not consider themselves more important than the rest of the people of Judah. 8 On that day Yahweh will protect the people who live in Jerusalem. Then even the weakest person among them will fight as powerfully as King David, the great warrior, once did. God will give the descendants of King David such great power that as they lead the people, it will seem as though Yahweh’s own angel is going ahead of them.

9 “At that time, I will set out to destroy all the nations that come to attack Jerusalem. 10 I will act very kindly toward the descendants of King David and the people who live in Jerusalem, and I will cause them to plead with me for mercy. They will look to me, the one whom they pierced, and they will mourn for me as strongly as parents mourn for an only son who has died. They will weep many tears for me, as many tears as people weep when a firstborn son dies.” 11 On that day the people in Jerusalem will mourn very loudly. They will mourn as loudly as the people did at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo, where they grieved for King Josiah after he died in battle.

12 All the people in the land will mourn, each clan by itself. The clan descended from King David will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. The clan descended from Nathan, King David’s son, will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. 13 The clan descended from Levi will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. The clan descended from Shimei will mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves. 14 All the clans that remain will each mourn by itself, and their wives will mourn by themselves.

13 At that time, Yahweh will continually cleanse the descendants of King David and the people who live in Jerusalem; he will forgive the sins that they have committed and take away everything that has made them impure. 2 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, declares, “At that time I will destroy all the idols in the land, so that no one will even speak their names or remember them anymore. I will also drive out of the land those who falsely claim to be prophets, along with the impure spirit that controls them.

3 If anyone still prophesies falsely, his own father and mother, the ones who gave birth to him, will tell him that he must die, because he has lied by claiming that he was speaking with my authority. Then, while he is prophesying, his own father and mother, who gave birth to him, will stab him to death.

4 At that time, every one of those prophets will feel ashamed of the visions that he claimed to see when he prophesied. None of them will wear the rough garment of animal hair that prophets wear, because they will no longer try to deceive people. 5 Instead, each one will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; a man sold me to this land’s owner when I was young.’ 6 If someone asks him, ‘Then what are these wounds on your chest?’ he will answer, ‘Someone wounded me at the house of my friends.’ ”

7 Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, says this: “I command that someone kill with a sword the leader who cares for my people,

the man who is my close associate.

When someone strikes that leader down,

the people whom he led will scatter in every direction,

and I myself will attack even the lowliest people among them.”

8 Yahweh declares, “Throughout the whole land, two out of every three people will certainly die,

and only one third of the people will remain alive.

9 I will cause that remaining third to suffer greatly in order to purify them,

just as a person refines silver and tests gold by heating them in a fire.

Then they will call out to me for help,

and I will answer them.

I will tell them that they are my people,

and they will declare that I, Yahweh, am their God.”

14 Pay attention! Yahweh has appointed a time when enemies will plunder the city of Jerusalem, deciding who will take what valuables while they are still in the city where you have to watch them. 2 Yahweh will gather the armies of all the nations to come and fight against Jerusalem. Those armies will capture the city, ransack the houses, and rape the women. They will take half of the people who live there away to other lands as captives, but they will not remove the rest of the people from the city. 3 Then Yahweh will go out and fight against those nations, just as he fought his enemies in battles long ago. 4 On that day, Yahweh himself will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is east of Jerusalem. He will split the Mount of Olives in two from east to west, and a very large valley will open up between the two parts. Half of the mountain will move away toward the north, and half of it will move away toward the south. 5 You people will escape through that valley between the mountains, because the valley will reach all the way to Azal. You will run away just as your ancestors ran away because of the earthquake that happened when Uzziah was the king of Judah. Then Yahweh my God will come, and all his holy angels will come with him. 6 At that time, there will be no daylight; the bright lights in the sky will grow dim. 7 That will be a unique day, and only Yahweh knows when it will happen. It will not follow the normal cycle of day and night. Even in the evening, when it is usually dark, there will still be light. 8 At that time, fresh water will flow out from Jerusalem. Half of it will flow east to the Salt Sea, and half of it will flow west to the Great Sea. The water will keep flowing throughout the whole year, in the hot season and in the cold season.

9 Then Yahweh will rule as king over the whole earth. At that time, people everywhere will worship Yahweh alone, and they will honor him alone as God. 10 The whole land from Geba in the north to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, will become a flat plain. But Jerusalem will rise up high and will remain where it has always stood. The city will stretch from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the First Gate, on to the Gate of the Corners, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. 11 People will live in Jerusalem, and enemies will never again completely destroy it. The people who live in Jerusalem will always be safe.

12 Yahweh will strike all the peoples who fought against Jerusalem with a terrible disease. Their flesh will rot away while they are still alive and standing. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. 13 At that time, Yahweh will cause those people to panic completely. They will grab one another by the hand, and they will attack each other. 14 The people of Judah will also fight against Jerusalem. They will gather the wealth of all the surrounding nations— huge amounts of gold, silver, and clothing. 15 The horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the camps of those enemies will suffer from that same disease.

16 Then everyone who survives from all the nations that attacked Jerusalem will go up to Jerusalem every year to worship the King, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, and to celebrate the Festival of Shelters, when the people live in temporary shelters. 17 If any of the people groups on the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies, then Yahweh will not send any rain on their land, and their crops will fail. 18 If the people of Egypt do not go up to Jerusalem to worship there, Yahweh will not send rain on them either. Since they depend on the Nile River rather than on rain, Yahweh will also strike them with the same disease with which he strikes all the other nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 19 That is how Yahweh will punish the people of Egypt and the people of every other nation that does not go up to celebrate the Festival of Shelters. 20 At that time, someone will engrave the words “Sacred to Yahweh” on the bells that hang on the horses. People will consider the cooking pots in the temple of Yahweh to be just as sacred as the bowls that the priests use in front of the altar. 21 Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be sacred to Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies. Everyone who comes to offer sacrifices will take some of those pots and boil the meat of their sacrifices in them. At that time, there will no longer be any merchant selling goods in the temple of Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies.