In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,
Jehovah was sore displeased with your fathers.
Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, Return ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith Jehovah.
Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?
But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as Jehovah of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.
Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,
I saw in the night, and, behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the {Or, shady place}bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white.
Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will show thee what these are.
And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered and said, These are they whom Jehovah hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
And they answered the angel of Jehovah that stood among the myrtle-trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
Then the angel of Jehovah answered and said, O Jehovah of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?
And Jehovah answered the angel that talked with me with good words, even comfortable words.
So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they {Or, helped for evil}helped forward the affliction.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith Jehovah of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.
Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: My cities {Or, through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad}shall yet overflow with prosperity; and Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
{[Chapter 2:1 in Hebrew]}And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns.
And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
And Jehovah showed me four smiths.
Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.
Querverweise zu Sacharja 1,6 Sach 1,6
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
God is not a man, that he should lie,Neither the son of man, that he should repent:Hath he said, and will he not do it?Or hath he spoken, and will he not make it good?
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
Return, I pray you, let there be no injustice;Yea, return again, {Hebrew: my righteousness is in it.}my cause is righteous.
Jehovah is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment:Hear, I pray you, all ye peoples, and behold my sorrow:My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
And it shall come to pass, that, as I thought to do unto them, so will I do unto you.
Jehovah will send upon thee cursing, discomfiture, and rebuke, in all that thou puttest thy hand unto to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the evil of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against Jehovah; and be sure your sin will find you out.
And all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of Jehovah thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:
Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. {[Chapter 3:19 in Hebrew]}
Jehovah hath done that which he purposed; he hath {Or, finished}fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old;He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied:And he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee; he hath exalted the horn of thine adversaries.
The anger of Jehovah shall not return, until he have {Or, done it}executed, and till he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall {Or, consider}understand it perfectly.
For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen; because their tongue and their doings are against Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
{Or, Their respecting of persons doth &c.}The show of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have done evil unto themselves.
Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for what his hands have done shall be done unto him.
Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed: he gave them all into his hand.
And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Jehovah, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:
to fulfil the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths: for as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.
And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, As Jehovah liveth; even as they taught my people to swear by Baal; then shall they be built up in the midst of my people.
Jehovah hath accomplished his wrath, he hath poured out his fierce anger;And he hath kindled a fire in Zion, which hath devoured the foundations thereof.
Circumcise yourselves to Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith of Jerusalem, She shall be inhabited; and of the cities of Judah, They shall be built, and I will raise up the waste places thereof;
All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, The evil shall not overtake nor meet us.
The kings of the earth believed not, neither all the inhabitants of the world,That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.
Only know ye for certain that, if ye put me to death, ye will bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truth Jehovah hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you {Some ancient authorities read as thieves.}as a thief:
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.
And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have polluted yourselves; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.
And they that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.
All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters.
For I am Jehovah; I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall be performed; it shall be no more deferred: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I speak the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Again the word of Jehovah came to me, saying,
Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of times that are far off.
Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: There shall none of my words be deferred any more, but the word which I shall speak shall be performed, saith the Lord Jehovah.
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths.
And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
For she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they {Or, made into the image of Baal}used for Baal.
Therefore will I {Or, return, and take away}take back my grain in the time thereof, and my new wine in the season thereof, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
And now will I uncover her {Or, shame}lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.
I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her {Or, appointed feasts}solemn assemblies.
Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even turning aside, that they should not obey thy voice: therefore hath the curse been poured out upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God; for we have sinned against him.
And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.