follows: 7“Thus said the LORD of Hosts: If you walk in My paths and keep My charge, you in turn will rule My House and guard My courts, and I will permit you to move about among these attendants. 8Hearken well, O High Priest Joshua, you and your fellow priests sitting before you! For those men are a sign that I am going to bring My servant the Branch.f 9For mark well this stone which I place before Joshua, a single stone with seven eyes.g I will execute its engraving—declares the LORD of Hosts—and I will remove that country’s guilt in a single day. 10In that day—declares the LORD of Hosts—you will be inviting each other to the shade of vines and fig trees.”
4 The angel who talked with me came back and woke me as a man is wakened from sleep. 2He said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl above it. The lamps on it are seven in number, and the a-lamps above it have-a seven pipes; 3and by it are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and one on its left.” 4I, in turn, asked the angel who talked with me, “What do those things mean, my lord?” 5“Do you not know what those things mean?” asked the angel who talked with me; and I said, “No, my lord.” 6Then he explained to me as follows:b
“This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:c Not by might, nor by power, but by My spiritd—said the LORD of Hosts. 7Whoever you are, O great mountain in the path of Zerubbabel, turn into level ground! For he shall produce that excellent stone; it shall be greeted with shouts of ‘Beautiful! Beautiful!’ ”
8And the word of the LORD came to me: 9“Zerubbabel’s hands have founded this House and Zerubbabel’s hands shall complete it. Then you shall know that it was the LORD of Hosts who sent me to you. 10Does anyone scorn a day of small beginnings? When they see e-the stone of distinction-e in the hand of Zerubbabel, they shall rejoice.
“Those seven are the eyes of the LORD, ranging over the whole earth.”
11“And what,” I asked him, “are those two olive trees, one on the right and one on the left of the lampstand?” 12And I further asked him, “What are the two topsf of the olive trees that feed their goldg through those two golden tubes?”h 13He asked me, “Don’t you know what they are?” And I replied, “No, my lord.” 14Then he explained, “They are the two i-anointed dignitaries-i who attend the Lord of all the earth.”
5 I looked up again, and I saw a flying scroll. 2“What do you see?” he asked. And I replied, “A flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.” 3“That,” he explained to me, “is the curse which goes out over the whole land. a-For everyone who has stolen, as is forbidden on one side [of the scroll], has gone unpunished; and everyone who has sworn [falsely], as is forbidden on the other side of it, has gone unpunished.-a 4[But] I have sent it forth—declares the LORD of Hosts—and [the curse] shall enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name, and it shall lodge inside their houses and shall consume them to the last timber and stone.”
5Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said, “Now look up and note this other object that is approaching.” 6I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “This tubb that is approaching—this,” said he, “is their eyec in all the land.” 7And behold, a disk of lead was lifted, revealing a woman seated inside the tub. 8“That,” he said, “is Wickedness”; and, thrusting her down into the tub, he pressed the leaden weight into its mouth.
9I looked up again and saw two women come soaring with the wind in their wings—they had wings like those of a stork—and carry off the tub between earth and sky. 10“Where are they taking the tub?” I asked the angel who talked with me. 11And he answered, “To build a shrine for it in the land of Shinar;d [a stand] shall be erected for it, and it shall be set down there upon the stand.”
6 I looked up again, and I saw: Four chariots were coming out from between the two mountains; the mountains were of copper. 2The horses of the first chariot were bay, the horses of the second chariot were black; 3the horses of the third chariot were white, and the horses of the fourth chariot were spotted—dappled. 4And I spoke up and asked the angel who talked with me: “What are those, my lord?” 5In reply, the angel said to me, “Those are the four winds of heaven coming out after presenting themselves to the Lord of all the earth. 6The one with the black horses is going out to the region of the north; the white ones a-have gone out-a to b-what is to the west of them;-b the spotted ones a-have gone out-a to the region of the south; 7and c-the dappled ones have gone out.…”-c They were ready to start out and range the earth, and he gave them the order, “Start out and range the earth!” And they ranged the earth. 8Then he alerted me, and said to me, “Take good note! Those that went out to the region of the north have d-done my pleasure-d in the region of the north.”e
9The word of the LORD came to me: 10Receive fromf the exiled community—from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon—and you, in turn, proceed the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah. 11Take silver and gold and make crowns. Place [one] on the head of High Priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, 12and say to him, “Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Behold, a man called the Branchg shall branch out from the place where he is, and he shall build the Temple of the LORD. 13He shall build the Temple of the LORD and shall assume majesty, and he shall sit on his throne and rule. And there shall also be a priest h-seated on his throne,-h and harmonious understanding shall prevail between them.”
14The crowns shall remain in the Temple of the LORD as a memorial to Helem,i Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Henj son of Zephaniah. 15Men from far away shall come and take part in the building of the Temple of the LORD, and you shall know that I have been sent to you by the LORD of Hosts— if only you will obey the LORD your God!
7 In the fourth year of King Darius, on the fourth day of the ninth month, Kislev, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah—2when Bethelsharezer a-and Regem-melech and his men sent-a to entreat the favor of the LORD, 3[and] to address this inquiry to the priests of the House of the LORD and to the prophets: “Shall I weep and practice abstinence in the fifth month,b as I have been doing all these years?”
4Thereupon the word of the LORD of Hosts came to me: 5Say to all the people of the land and to the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months all these seventy years, did you fast for my benefit? 6And when you eat and drink, who but you does the eating, and who but you does the drinking? 7Look, this is the message that the LORD proclaimed through the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem and the towns about her were peopled and tranquil, when the Negeb and the Shephelah were peopled.
8And the word of the LORD to Zechariah continued: 9Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Execute true justice; deal loyally and compassionately with one another. 10Do not defraud the widow, the orphan, the stranger, and the poor; and do not plot evil against one another.— 11But they refused to pay heed. They presented a balky back and turned a deaf ear. 12They hardened their hearts like adamant against heeding the instruction and admonition that the LORD of Hosts sent to them by His spirit through the earlier prophets; and a terrible wrath issued from the LORD of Hosts. 13Even as He called and they would not listen, “So,” said the LORD of Hosts, “let them call and I will not listen.” 14I dispersed them among all those nations which they had not known, and the land was left behind them desolate, without any who came and went. They caused a delightful land to be turned into a desolation.
8 The word of the LORD of Hosts came [to me]:
2Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I am very jealous for Zion, I am fiercely jealous for her. 3Thus said the LORD: I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called the City of Faithfulness, and the mount of the LORD of Hosts the Holy Mount.
4Thus said the LORD of Hosts: There shall yet be old men and women in the squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age. 5And the squares of the city shall be crowded with boys and girls playing in the squares. 6Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Though it will seem impossible to the remnant of this people in those days, shall it also be impossible to Me?— declares the LORD of Hosts. 7Thus said the LORD of Hosts: I will rescue My people from the lands of