1. In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
2. The Lord has been sore displeased with your fathers.
3. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus hath the Lord of the hosts said; Turn unto me, said the Lord of the hosts, and I will turn unto you, said the Lord of the hosts.
4. Do not be as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus hath the Lord of the hosts said; Turn now from your evil ways and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, said the Lord.
5. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
6. But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my slaves the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? Therefore they returned from captivity and said, Like as the Lord of the hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.
7. Upon the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came unto the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,
8. I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were red horses, speckled, and white.
9. Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will show thee who these are.
10. And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
11. And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle trees and said, We have walked to and fro through the land, and, behold, all the earth sits still and is at rest.
12. Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of the hosts, when wilt thou have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these seventy years?
13. And the Lord answered good words unto the angel that talked with me, words of consolation.