Zechariah tells the people to turn back to God
1 The Lord gave his message to the prophet Zechariah in the second year that Darius ruled Persia as king. It happened in the eighth month of that year. Zechariah was the son of Berekiah and the grandson of Iddo.
1:1When we write Lord like this, it is a special name for God. Sometimes people write it as the Hebrew name ‘Yahweh’. It is God's own name that he told Moses. See Exodus 3:14. It means ‘I am who I am’. This shows that God has always been there and he always will be there. 2 This was the Lord's message:
I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors. 3 So you must say to the people, ‘The Lord Almighty says, “You must turn back to me, and I will return to you.” That is the message from the Lord Almighty. 4 He says, “Do not be like your ancestors. Many years ago the prophets told them, ‘Stop doing those evil and wicked things.’ But they refused to obey me.
5 Your ancestors have been dead for a long time. Those prophets also are no longer alive. 6 But my commands and my laws which the prophets spoke to the people are still true. I punished your ancestors, as I had warned them. Then they turned back to me. They said, ‘The Lord Almighty has punished us as we deserved for our sins. He has done as he said he would do.’ ” That is what the Lord says.’
