Zechariah 1-3

EasyEnglish Bible

Return to the Lord

1 When Darius had been king of Persia for two years, Zechariah the prophet heard a message from the Lord.^[a] It was the eighth month of the year. Zechariah was the son of Berekiah, and Berekiah was the son of Iddo.

² This was the Lord's message:

‘I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. ³ Now I, the Lord Almighty, say this to you: “If you return to me, I will return to you.” ⁴ Do not be like your ancestors. Many years ago the prophets gave them a message from me. The message was, “Stop doing those evil and wicked things.” But they did not listen to me. They did not think that my message was important. ⁵ That was a long time ago. Your ancestors have been dead for a long time. So have the prophets. ⁶ I told my prophets to speak my message and my commands. I punished your ancestors, as I warned them I would do. Then they turned back to me. They said, “The Lord Almighty has punished us for our sins, as he said he would do.” ’

The man on the red horse

⁷ On the 24th day of Shebat, the 11th month of the year, the Lord spoke to Zechariah the prophet. This was when Darius had been king for two years.

⁸ During the night I, Zechariah, had a dream from the Lord. I saw a man on a red horse. The horse was standing among some trees called myrtle trees, in the valley. And behind him were red, brown and white horses.

⁹ I asked him, ‘My lord, what are these horses?’ The angel who talked with me said, ‘I will show you what they are.’

¹⁰ The man who was standing among the trees answered, ‘The Lord has sent these horses to go to all the places on the earth.’

¹¹ And the horses spoke to the angel of the Lord who stood among the trees. They said, ‘We have gone all over the earth. All the earth is without trouble.’

¹² Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘Lord Almighty, how long will you be angry with Jerusalem? How long will you be angry with the cities of Judah? You have already been angry for 70 years.’ ¹³ And the Lord answered the angel with kind words.

¹⁴ The angel said to me, ‘Tell this to the people. This is what the Lord Almighty says: “I love Jerusalem. Jerusalem is mine. ¹⁵ I am very angry with the countries that are safe and without danger. Those countries were too cruel to my people, when I was only a little angry with Jerusalem.” ¹⁶ So this is what the Lord says: “I will return to Jerusalem to be kind to the people there. I will build my house again”, says the Lord Almighty, “and I will build the city again.” ’

¹⁷ The angel told me that I must say this: ‘The Lord Almighty says, “My towns will be rich again. I will again speak kind words to Jerusalem. I will choose Jerusalem again as my own city.” ’

Four horns and four workers^[b]

¹⁸ And I looked up and I saw four horns. ¹⁹ And I asked the angel that talked with me, ‘What are these horns?’ Then the angel said to me, ‘These are the strong enemies of my people. They took my people out of Judah, out of Israel and out of Jerusalem.’

²⁰ Then the Lord showed me four workers with hammers. ²¹ I said, ‘What are these men coming to do?’ The Lord answered, ‘The horns are the enemies that destroyed Judah. They destroyed Judah and they made the people ashamed. The workers came to frighten and to destroy the enemies because they killed many of my people. The enemies took many of my people out of Judah.’

The vision about Jerusalem that God gave to Zechariah

2 Then I looked up and I saw a man in front of me. He had a line in his hand. The line was to measure something. ² I asked the man, ‘Where are you going?’ He said to me, ‘I am going to measure Jerusalem. I want to see how wide and how long it is.’ ³ The angel that talked with me went away. Another angel came to meet him. ⁴ The second angel said to the first angel, ‘Run to that young man with the line in his hand. Say that Jerusalem will be a city without walls. This is because of the many people and many animals that will live in it. ⁵ The Lord himself promises that he will be like a wall of fire round Jerusalem. He will shine as a beautiful light inside the city.’

The Lord will be among his people

⁶ ‘Come! Come! Run away from the country in the north,’ says the Lord. ‘As the four winds blow in different directions, I sent you to many far countries.

⁷ Come, my people. Run away from Babylon and return to Jerusalem.’ ⁸ Return because the Lord says, ‘Anyone that attacks you is attacking the Lord's people. He is attacking the people that the Lord loves.’ So the Lord Almighty sent me, Zechariah, with this message about the countries that have robbed his people. ⁹ ‘The Lord himself will fight against your enemies and their own slaves will rob them. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me, Zechariah, to you.’

¹⁰ ‘Sing and be happy, you people in Jerusalem. This is because I will come. And I will live among you,’ says the Lord. ¹¹ ‘On that day, the people from many countries will come to me, the Lord, and they will become my people. I will live among you. You will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me. ¹² The Lord will choose Judah for himself again. Jerusalem will be the city that he loves most of all cities. ¹³ Be quiet, all people, because the Lord has left his home in heaven to come among you.’

Clean clothes for Joshua the most important priest

3 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to me, Zechariah, and he showed me Joshua, the most important priest. Joshua was standing in front of the angel of the Lord. Satan stood on the right side of Joshua. He was ready to say that Joshua had done bad things. ² The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord says that you are wrong. The Lord has chosen Jerusalem. And he says that you are wrong. Joshua is certainly like a burning stick that someone pulls quickly out of the fire.’

³ Joshua was wearing very dirty clothes and he stood in front of the angel. ⁴ The angel said to the other angels that stood in front of him, ‘Remove his very dirty clothes.’ Then the first angel said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken away your sin. I will put the clothes on you that a priest should wear.’

⁵ Then Zechariah said, ‘Put a clean hat on his head.’ So they put a clean hat on his head and they dressed him in clean clothes. The angel of the Lord stood near to them.^[c]

⁶ The angel of the Lord spoke to Joshua with these serious words. ⁷ ‘These are the words of the Lord Almighty. Listen to them and obey them. “You will rule in my house. You will rule inside the walls of my house. I will give you a place among the angels that are standing here.

⁸ Listen, Joshua, most important priest of the Lord. Listen you priests that sit with Joshua. You are like a sign. People can look at you. And they can know that good things will happen in future years. See! I will bring to you my servant who is called The Branch.^{[d] 9} See the stone that I have put in front of Joshua! It is a stone with seven sides and I will cut words in the stone”, says the Lord Almighty. “I will remove the sin of this country's people in one day.” ¹⁰ “On that day”, says the Lord Almighty, “each of you will ask your friends to come. You will ask them to come and to sit under your own vines and fig trees.” ’^[e]