The Daily Audio Bible

Four chariots

6 Again I looked up and I saw four chariots! They came out from between two mountains and the mountains were mountains of shining metal! ² The first chariot had red horses and the second chariot had black horses. ³ The third chariot had white horses and the fourth chariot had grey horses. All the horses were strong. ⁴ Then I spoke to the angel that talked to me. I asked him, ‘What are these chariots, my lord?’

⁵ The angel answered me, ‘These are the four spirits of heaven. They have come from the Lord of the whole world. ⁶ The chariot with the black horses goes towards the north country. The chariot with the white horses goes after them. The chariot with the grey horses goes towards the south country.’

⁷ When the strong horses came out, they were in a hurry to leave. The angel said, ‘Go through all the earth.’ So the horses went through all the earth.

⁸ Then the Lord told me, ‘The chariot that goes to the north country has caused my Spirit to rest in the north country. I am now no longer angry about the north country.’

A crown for Joshua

⁹ The Lord spoke to me.

¹⁰ ‘Three men have arrived from Babylon,’ he said. ‘Their names are Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah. Take the gold that they have brought with them. On the same day, take the gold to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah.

¹¹ Take the gold and other valuable metal and make a crown. Put it on the head of Joshua the most important priest. He is the son of Jehozadak. ¹² Say to Joshua, “The Lord Almighty says, ‘I have chosen a man. His name is the Branch. He will be a great man and he will build the house of the Lord.

¹³ It is he who will build the house of the Lord. He will sit on his special high seat and he will rule all the people. He will be a priest on the seat of a king. This one man will be priest and king.’ ” ¹⁴ They will put the crown in the house of the Lord. This is to remember Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and Hen the son of Zephaniah. This is because they brought the gold from Babylon.

¹⁵ People will come a long way and they will help to build the house of the Lord. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. All this will happen if you completely obey the Lord your God.’

God wants people to be fair and kind

7 The Lord spoke to Zechariah when Darius had been king for four years. It was the fourth day of the ninth month. The name of the month was Kislev. ² Then the people in Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their men to Jerusalem. They came to ask the Lord to help them. ³ They came to the house of the Lord Almighty to speak to the priests and to the prophets. They asked, ‘Should we cry and not eat our food in the fifth month? We have done this for many years.’^[a]

⁴ The Lord Almighty spoke to me. ⁵ He said, ‘Say this to all the people in this country and to the priests: “You lived in Babylon for many years. You ate no food and you were sad in the fifth month and in the seventh month. But you did not do this for me. ⁶ You ate and you drank. But you ate and you drank for yourselves. ⁷ These are the words that I, the Lord, spoke by my prophets in past years. At that time, the people in Jerusalem lived without trouble. Many rich people lived in Jerusalem. People in the Negev region in the south and in the low hills in the west also lived safely.” ’

⁸ The Lord spoke again to Zechariah. He said, ⁹ ‘The Lord Almighty has said, “Be sure that you are fair to all people. Be kind to each other. ¹⁰ Do not cheat widows or children who have no family. Do not cheat foreigners or poor people. Do not think secretly of ways to hurt each other.”

¹¹ But the people would not listen and they turned away. They put their hands over their ears, because they did not want to hear. ¹² They decided that they would not listen to God's rules or to the messages from the prophets. But the Lord Almighty had sent those messages by His Spirit. So I, the Lord Almighty, was very angry.

¹³ When I spoke to them, they did not listen. So when they prayed to me, I did not listen to them, says the Lord Almighty. ¹⁴ As a storm takes things away, I took my people away to strange countries. The country that they left became an empty country. Nobody lived in it. That is how they made the good country an empty country.’

The seven angels with the last troubles

15 Then I saw another very wonderful thing in the sky.^[a] I saw seven angels with seven terrible troubles to hurt people. They are the final troubles. When they have finished, God will stop being angry.

² Then I saw what seemed to be a glass sea. Fire was mixed in it. I also saw people who were standing at the edge of the glass sea. Those people had fought against the wild animal and they had won. They had won against its image and the number that means its name. They had fought and they had won. God had given them harps. They held the harps to make music. ³ Now they sang the song of God's servant, Moses, and the Lamb's song.^[b] They sang this:

⁵ After this I looked again. I saw that God's house in heaven was open. That house is like God's tent, where he lived among his people in the wilderness.^{[c] 6} The seven angels with the seven terrible troubles then came out of God's house. They were wearing clean, bright clothes that were made from linen. They had gold belts around the top part of their bodies. ⁷ Then one of the four beings that were alive gave seven gold bowls to the seven angels. God had poured his anger into the bowls. He is the God who is alive for ever. ⁸ Then God's house in heaven became full of smoke, which showed God's great glory and his power. As a result, nobody could go into God's house until the angels had finished sending the seven terrible troubles.

This is a song that David wrote.

Please help me, Lord!^[a]

²⁴ There are four things that live on the earth which are very small, but they are also very wise: