First light on an empty stony road climbing through terraced hills toward small, ruined Jerusalem on its ridge, its broken walls and the cleared temple platform far off, the road turning back toward the city.

Return to Me

Zechariah 1

Darius’s second year, and a word for anyone who has drifted: Return to Me.

21 verses≈ 4 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1:1–6Return to MeA call to turn, in Darius’s second yearChapter 1
1:7–6:8Eight night visionsHorses, horns, a lampstand, a scroll, a basket, chariots
6:9–15The Branch crownedA crown for Joshua, and the Branch who builds
7–8Fasts to feastsJustice and mercy, and joy in Zion
9–11Your King comesThe King on a donkey, and the Shepherd rejected
12–14On that dayThe pierced One, the fountain, the LORD King

A Call to Repentance

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

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God

“The LORD was very angry with your fathers.

God

So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’

Zechariah 1:3

God

Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Turn now from your evil ways and deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD.

God

The empty ruins of Jerusalem long after its fall: a burned and fallen city gate, blackened stones, weeds grown through the rubble and a broken wall running down the slope under a gray morning sky; no people.

But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? They repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.’”

The Vision of the Horses

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo.

Zechariah

A moonlit hollow thick with low dark myrtle bushes beside a little water: a rider on a chestnut-red horse stands among them, seen from behind and in shadow, and behind him in the dark stand a few riderless horses, red, sorrel and white.

I looked out into the night and saw a man riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the hollow, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.

Zechariah

“What are these, my lord?” I asked.

The angel

And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”

The angel of the LORD

Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.”

The riders

And the riders answered the angel of the LORD who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and tranquil.”

The angel of the LORD

Then the angel of the LORD said, “How long, O LORD of Hosts, will You withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which You have been angry these seventy years?”

Zechariah

So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.

Question

Quick question

The riders have been all over the earth. Read their report in 1:11 again before you answer.

What did the riders report?

God

Then the angel who was speaking with me said, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

God

Morning on the old temple site: the first courses of great cut stones and a course of timber beams going up among rough pole scaffolds, a builder's cord stretched taut between two pegs along the next course, workers small at the stones.

Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will return to Jerusalem with mercy, and there My house will be rebuilt, declares the LORD of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’

God

Evening over the Judean hills: terraced valleys green with grain and vines, two small hill towns being rebuilt among them with cooking smoke rising, and a road winding between.

Proclaim further that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem.’”

0:11

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

The Vision of the Horns and the Craftsmen

Zechariah

Zechariah

Then I looked up and saw four horns.

Zechariah

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?”

The angel

And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

Zechariah

Zechariah

Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.

Zechariah

“What are these coming to do?” I asked.

God

And He replied, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”

Pray

Lord of Hosts, You said, Return to Me, and I will return to you. I turn back now from my own ways. Thank You that You see the ruins and You are not done with them.

You’ve experienced

Zechariah 1

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A verse to carry with you

So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the LORD of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts.’

Zechariah 1:3

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