The Eighth Vision: Four Chariots
61Then I turned and lifted up my eyes and looked again. There were four chariots coming out from between two mountains. The mountains were made of bronze. 2The first chariot had red horses. The second chariot had black horses. 3The third chariot had white horses. The fourth chariot had dappled horses. All of them were powerful. 4So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?”
5The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits[] of the heavens, going forth from their stations to present themselves to the Lord of all the earth. 6The driver with the black horses is going toward the land of the north, and the one with the white horses is following after them, and the one with the dappled horses is going toward the land of the south.” 7Now the powerful horses came out, and they were eager to range throughout the earth. He said, “Go! Range throughout the earth.” So they ranged throughout the earth.
8Then he called out to me and told me, “Look! Those who are going out toward the land of the north have caused my Spirit to rest in the land of the north.”
The Crowning of Joshua
9The word of the Lord came to me:
10Take an offering from the exiles—from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon—and on that very day go into the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and place it on the head of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
12Tell him that this is what the Lord of Armies says:
There is a man whose name is the Branch, because he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord. 13He is the one who will build the temple of the Lord. He will be clothed with majesty, and he will sit and rule on his throne. He will be a priest on his throne, and there will be peaceful relations between the two offices.[] 14The crown will be kept in the temple as a memorial[] for Helem[] and Tobijah and Jedaiah and Hen,[] son of Zephaniah. 15Those who are far away will come and build the temple of the Lord, and you will know that the Lord of Armies has sent me to you. This will happen if you carefully obey the voice of the Lord your God.
The Reason the Land Became Desolate
71In the fourth year of King Darius,[] the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Kislev.[] 2The people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem Melek with their men to plead for the favor of the Lord 3by asking the priests who were at the house of the Lord of Armies and the prophets, “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done these many years?”
4Then the word of the Lord of Armies came to me:
5Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests.
When you fasted and lamented during the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 6And when you eat and drink, is it not for yourselves that you eat and drink? 7Weren't these the words that the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and when the Negev and the Shephelah[] were inhabited? 8Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah:
9This is what the Lord of Armies says. Execute true justice. Each man is to show kindness and compassion to his brother. 10Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless child, the foreigner living among you, or the poor. Make sure that none of you plan evil in your heart against your brother.
11But they refused to pay attention. They turned a stubborn shoulder and covered their ears so that they would not hear. 12They made their hearts like the hardest rock[] so that they would not hear the law and the words that the Lord of Armies sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. As a result, the fierce anger from the Lord of Armies was great. 13When I called, they would not listen. So when they called, I would not listen, says the Lord of Armies. 14I scattered them with a windstorm, among all the nations which they did not know. So the land was left desolate behind them. No one traveled back and forth through it. They made the pleasant land desolate.
