1 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had ^ered horses, the second ^fblack horses, 3 the third ^gwhite horses, and the fourth chariot ^hdappled horses—all of them strong.¹ 4 Then I answered and said to the ⁱangel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 And the angel answered and said to me, “These are going out to the ^jfour winds of heaven,² after presenting themselves before the ^kLord of all the earth. 6 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” 7 When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and ^lpatrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth. 8 Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.”

9 And the word of the Lord came to me: 10 “Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah. 11 Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of ^mJehozadak, the high priest. 12 And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the ⁿBranch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. 13 It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there³ shall be a ^opriest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’ 14 And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helem,⁴ Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah.

15 “And ^pthose who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. And you shall know that ^qthe Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

1 In the fourth year of King ^rDarius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev. 2 Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord, 3 saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the ^sfifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

4 Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me: 5 “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you ^tfasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for ^uthese seventy years, was it for me that you fasted? 6 And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Were not these the words that the Lord proclaimed by the ^vformer prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’”

8 And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ^wRender ^xtrue judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, 10 do not oppress the ^ywidow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you ^zdevise evil against another in your heart.” 11 But they refused to pay attention and turned a ^astubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.⁵ 12 They made their hearts ^bdiamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. 13 ^c“As ^dI⁶ called, and they would not hear, so ^ethey called, and I would not hear,” says the Lord of hosts, 14 “and I ^fscattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the ^gpleasant land was made desolate.”