1. IN THE eighth month, in the second year [of the reign] of Darius, came the word of the Lord to Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, [Ezra 5:1.]
2. The Lord was very angry with your fathers.
3. Therefore say to them [the Jews of this day], Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return to Me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you; it is the utterance of the Lord of hosts.
4. Be not as your fathers to whom the former prophets cried, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return now from your evil ways and your evil doings; but they would not hear or listen to Me, says the Lord. [II Kings 17:13; Isa. 45:22; Jer. 18:11; Ezek. 33:11.]
5. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
6. But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake and take hold of your fathers? So they repented and said, As the Lord of hosts planned and purposed to do to us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so has He dealt with us.
7. Upon the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of the reign of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet. Zechariah said,
8. I saw in the night [vision] and behold, a Man riding upon a red horse, and He stood among the myrtle trees that were in a low valley or bottom, and behind Him there were horses, red, bay or flame-colored, and white.
9. Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who talked with me said, I will show you what these are.
10. And the Man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the Lord has sent to walk to and fro through the earth and patrol it.
11. And the men on the horses answered the Angel of the Lord Who stood among the myrtle trees and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth [patrolling it] and behold, all the earth sits at rest [in peaceful security].