Atlas Biblica

    Zechariah · 21 verses

    Zechariah 1

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    The patrol comes back with excellent news: all the earth is at rest—and somehow that is the alarming part.

    A warning handed downvv. 1–6

    In Darius’s second year, the word of the LORD comes to Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo. The opening instruction is wonderfully direct: return, and the LORD will return. The fathers had heard the former prophets and declined to pay attention; eventually, with the grim punctuality of a bill, the words and statutes overtook them. The chapter leaves their repentance in their own mouths.

    A quiet earth, and four noisy hornsvv. 7–17

    On the twenty-fourth day of Shebat, Zechariah looks into the night and finds a red horse, other horses, and a man among myrtle trees in the hollow. The riders have patrolled the earth and report it tranquil. This is not received as a tidy conclusion: the angel immediately asks how long mercy will be withheld from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, while the nations lounging at ease incur fierce anger. The LORD speaks kind and comforting words, though the words themselves remain offstage; only the announcement survives. Jerusalem will receive mercy, the house will be rebuilt, and prosperity will return to the cities.

    The horns meet their craftsmenvv. 18–21

    Then the vision changes its furniture. Four horns appear, identified as the horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Four craftsmen follow. The chapter gives no reason for the number four, which is perhaps just as well: the craftsmen have arrived to terrify the horns and throw them down. The horns had prevented anyone from raising his head; the craftsmen appear to have brought the appropriate tools for that particular nuisance.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Zech 1:1In 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:

    2. Zech 1:2“The LORD was very angry with your fathers.

    3. Zech 1:3So 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.’

    4. Zech 1:4Do 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.

    5. Zech 1:5Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?

    6. Zech 1:6But 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.’”

    7. Zech 1:7On 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.

    8. Zech 1:8I 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.

    9. Zech 1:9“What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”

    10. Zech 1:10Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.”

    11. Zech 1:11And 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.”

    12. Zech 1:12Then 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?”

    13. Zech 1:13So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.

    14. Zech 1:14Then 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,

    15. Zech 1:15but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity.’

    16. Zech 1:16Therefore 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.’

    17. Zech 1:17Proclaim 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.’”

    18. Zech 1:18Then I looked up and saw four horns.

    19. Zech 1:19So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

    20. Zech 1:20Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.

    21. Zech 1:21“What are these coming to do?” I asked. 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.”

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 362 passages were voted onto 21 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 3Jeremiah 3:22“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.
    • 3Malachi 3:7Yet from the days of your fathers, you have turned away from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you ask, ‘How can we return?’
    • 3Joel 2:12“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
    • 3Deuteronomy 30:2–10and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today,
    • 3Jeremiah 4:1“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
    • 6Lamentations 2:17The LORD has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.
    • 4Psalms 78:8Then they will not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose heart was not loyal, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
    • 6Ezekiel 12:25–28because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’”
    • 16Zechariah 8:3This is what the LORD says: “I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth, and the mountain of the LORD of Hosts will be called the Holy Mountain.”
    • 17Isaiah 51:3For the LORD will comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and melodious song.
    • 21Psalms 75:10“All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”
    • 3Isaiah 31:6Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel.
    • 3Hosea 6:1Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
    • 8Revelation 6:4Then another horse went forth. It was bright red, and its rider was granted permission to take away peace from the earth and to make men slay one another. And he was given a great sword.
    • 10Zechariah 1:11And 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.”
    • 15Jeremiah 51:24Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion,” declares the LORD.

    Onward

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