Zechariah 2-3

New International Version - UK

A man with a measuring line

2 ^[a]Then I looked up, and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand. ² I asked, ‘Where are you going?’

He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.’

³ While the angel who was speaking to me was leaving, another angel came to meet him ⁴ and said to him: ‘Run, tell that young man, “Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of people and animals in it. ⁵ And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,” declares the Lord, “and I will be its glory within.”

⁶ ‘Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven,’ declares the Lord.

⁷ ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who live in Daughter Babylon!’ ⁸ For this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘After the Glorious One has sent me against the nations that have plundered you – for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye – ⁹ I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them.^[b] Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me.

¹⁰ ‘Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,’ declares the Lord. ¹¹ ‘Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you. ¹² The Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land and will again choose Jerusalem. ¹³ Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.’

Clean garments for the high priest

3 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan^[c] standing at his right side to accuse him. ² The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?’

³ Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. ⁴ The angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Take off his filthy clothes.’

Then he said to Joshua, ‘See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.’

⁵ Then I said, ‘Put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.

⁶ The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: ⁷ ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: “If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

⁸ ‘“Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. ⁹ See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes^[d] on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

¹⁰ ‘“In that day each of you will invite your neighbour to sit under your vine and fig-tree,” declares the Lord Almighty.’