Add parallel Print Page Options

In the second year of Darius, on the twenty-fourth day of Shebat, the eleventh month,[a] the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah, son of Iddo:

[b]I looked out in the night,[c] and there was a man mounted on a red horse standing in the shadows among myrtle trees; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. I asked, “What are these, my lord?”[d] Then the angel who spoke with me answered, “I will show you what these are.” 10 Then the man who was standing among the myrtle trees spoke up and said, “These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth.”(A) 11 And they answered the angel of the Lord,[e] who was standing among the myrtle trees: “We have been patrolling the earth, and now the whole earth rests quietly.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 1:7 The second year…eleventh month: February 15, 519 B.C. The largest set of visions (1:7–6:15) is dated to a time just prior to the beginning of the new year in the spring.
  2. 1:8–11 Four riders on horses of three different colors are sent by God to patrol the four corners of the earth. Compare the four chariots of the seventh vision, 6:1–8.
  3. 1:8 In the night: nighttime, or this night. This setting of darkness is meant only for the first vision.
  4. 1:9 My lord: this expression in Hebrew (‘adoni) is used as a polite form of address. Angel who spoke with me: angelic being (not identical to the angel of the Lord who is one of the four horsemen) who serves as an interpreter, bringing a message from God to the prophet, who himself is a messenger of God.
  5. 1:11 Angel of the Lord: chief angelic figure in God’s heavenly court, and perhaps the “man” of 1:8.