1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

2 The LORD has been sore displeased with your fathers.

3 Therefore say you to them, Thus said the LORD of hosts; Turn you to me, said the LORD of hosts, and I will turn to you, said the LORD of hosts.

4 Be you not as your fathers, to whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus said the LORD of hosts; Turn you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor listen to 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 servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.

7 On the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD to Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

8 I saw by night, and behold a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.

9 Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said to me, I will show you what these be.

10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they 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 earth, and, behold, all the earth sits still, and is at rest.

12 Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these three score and ten years?

13 And the LORD answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.

14 So the angel that communed with me said to me, Cry you, saying, Thus said the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.

16 Therefore thus said the LORD; I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, said the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth on Jerusalem.

17 Cry yet, saying, Thus said the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

18 Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.

19 And I said to the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

20 And the LORD showed me four carpenters.

21 Then said I, What come these to do? And he spoke, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

This rebuke (see above, p. 575) seems inconsistent with a date five weeks or more after work had been begun at the Temple and at least ten days after the prophecy in Hag 2:1-9. The clumsy handiwork of one or more editors is also evident in the section. The thought appears to be as follows: The Lord had great cause to be wroth with your fathers, and their punishment has largely fallen upon you. But now if you will change your attitude towards Him in showing loyal obedience, He will change His attitude towards you in showing you mercy. Your fathers were stubborn, and they are gone; but the prophets-' words came to pass, and your fathers were constrained to acknowledge the justice of their punishment. Zec 1:5, as it stands, is difficult. The required sense is best given by the restoration of a negative omitted by accident; thus, Your fathers where are they? but the prophets, do not they live for ever? Yea, indeed, my words and my statutes, etc. The reference is not to individual prophets but to the prophetic order which always endures.

This section, to which Zec 1:7 is an editorial introduction, either is not the beginning of Zechariah's allegories, or has not come down to us in its original form, for the interpreting angel is mentioned in Zec 1:9 as already known to the reader. A verse introducing him may, however, have been omitted between Zec 1:8 and Zec 1:9, since the opening words of Zec 1:8 imply that we have here the beginning of the allegorical prophecies. There are many corruptions in the text, several of which can, however, be easily corrected from the context. In Zec 1:8 read, I saw in the (Anglice a) night dream (cf. Zec 4:1): omit riding upon a red horse, as a mutilated fragment of the last clause of the verse which should read, and behind him were riders on horses red, white, sorrel, and black. (According to MT the horses carry on a conversation.) In Zec 1:11, for the angel of the Lord read the man (i.e. of Zec 1:8; the correction was perhaps due to reverence, since Zec 1:12 f. shows that the man is the Lord Himself). In Zec 1:12 read the angel that talked with me answered. For myrtle trees the LXX has, perhaps correctly, mountains, as in Zec 6:1. The significance of myrtle trees is not known, nor of the word rendered the bottom ( Zec 1:8 mg. shady place). With a corrected text the meaning of the allegory is clear. Zechariah sees someone, who is later perceived to be the Lord Himself, behind whom are four riders on horses of various colours. These bring reports from the four quarters of the earth that the whole earth is quiet; i.e. the revolts which Haggai expected to end in the downfall of Persia have been quelled. Thereupon the interpreting angel expresses the prophet's disappointment, but the Lord answers with words of encouragement. The heathen nations have indeed been His instrument to chastise His people (cf. Isa 10:5 ff.), but they are about to be punished for their malice. The outcome will be the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem.

The four horns which have scattered Judah and Jerusalem (Israel should probably be omitted) represent the whole world arrayed against Judah, and are perhaps iron horns like those made by Zedekiah ( 1Ki 22:11); hence smiths are introduced to shatter them.