1. In the second year of Darius, in the eighth month, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo:
2. The Lord was very angry with your ancestors.
3. Say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return to me—oracle of the Lord of hosts—and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
4. Do not be like your ancestors to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Turn from your evil ways and from your wicked deeds. But they did not listen or pay attention to me—oracle of the Lord.—
5. Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, can they live forever?
6. But my words and my statutes, with which I charged my servants the prophets, did these not overtake your ancestors? Then they repented and admitted: “Just as the Lord of hosts intended to treat us according to our ways and deeds, so the Lord has done.”