Thursday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. In 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: 2Verse 2. “The LORD was very angry with your fathers. 3Verse 3. So 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.’ 4Verse 4. Do 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. 5Verse 5. Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6Verse 6. But 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.’” 7Verse 7. On 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. 8Verse 8. I 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. 9Verse 9. “What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.” 10Verse 10. Then the man standing among the myrtle trees explained, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to patrol the earth.” 11Verse 11. And 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.” 12Verse 12. Then 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?” 13Verse 13. So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me. 14Verse 14. Then 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, 15Verse 15. but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have added to the calamity. ’ 16Verse 16. Therefore 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.’ 17Verse 17. Proclaim 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.’”

5Verse 5. When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her. 6Verse 6. The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. 7Verse 7. But if the man does not want to marry his brother’s widow, she is to go to the elders at the city gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to preserve his brother’s name in Israel. He is not willing to perform the duty of a brother-in-law for me.” 8Verse 8. Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak with him. If he persists and says, “I do not want to marry her,” 9Verse 9. his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who will not maintain his brother’s line.” 10Verse 10. And his family name in Israel will be called “The House of the Unsandaled.”