¹ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah unto Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,

² Jehovah hath been very wroth with your fathers.

³ And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will Return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁴ Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets cried, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings; but they did not hearken nor attend unto me, saith Jehovah.

⁵ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

⁶ But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they turned and said, Like as Jehovah of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

⁷ Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah unto Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying,

⁸ I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the low valley; and behind him were red, bay, and white horses.

⁹ And I said, My lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these are.

¹⁰ And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered and said, These are they whom Jehovah hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

¹¹ And they answered the angel of Jehovah that stood among the myrtle-trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest.

¹² And the angel of Jehovah answered and said, Jehovah of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these seventy years?

¹³ And Jehovah answered the angel that talked with me good words, comforting words.

¹⁴ And the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy,

¹⁵ and I am wroth exceedingly with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little wroth, and they helped forward the affliction.

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, saith Jehovah of hosts, and the line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.

¹⁷ Cry further, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity, and Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

¹⁸ And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.

¹⁹ And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

²⁰ And Jehovah shewed me four craftsmen.

²¹ And I said, What come these to do? And he spoke, saying, Those are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these are come to affright them, to cast out the horns of the nations, which lifted up the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.

¹ And Joseph came and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren, and their sheep and their cattle, and all that they have, are come out of the land of Canaan; and behold, they are in the land of Goshen.

² And he took from the whole number of his brethren, five men, and set them before Pharaoh.

³ And Pharaoh said to his brethren, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Thy servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.

⁴ And they said to Pharaoh, To sojourn in the land are we come; for there is no pasture for the sheep that thy servants have, for the famine is grievous in the land of Canaan; and now, we pray thee, let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

⁵ And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come to thee.

⁶ The land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land settle thy father and thy brethren: let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if thou knowest men of activity among them, then set them as overseers of cattle over what I have.

⁷ And Joseph brought Jacob his father, and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

⁸ And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days of the years of thy life?

⁹ And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they do not attain to the days of the years of the life of my fathers, in the days of their sojourning.

¹⁰ And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from Pharaoh.

¹¹ And Joseph settled his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

¹² And Joseph maintained his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread, according to the number of the little ones.

¹³ And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very grievous; and the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan were exhausted through the famine.

¹⁴ And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought; and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

¹⁵ And when money came to an end in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, saying, Give us bread! for why should we die before thee? for [our] money is all gone.

¹⁶ And Joseph said, Give your cattle, and I will Give you for your cattle, if [your] money be all gone.

¹⁷ And they brought their cattle to Joseph; and Joseph gave them bread for horses, and for flocks of sheep, and for herds of cattle, and for asses; and he fed them with bread for all their cattle that year.

¹⁸ And that year ended; and they came to him the second year, and said to him, We will not hide [it] from my lord that since [our] money is come to an end, and the herds of cattle are in the possession of my lord, nothing is left before my lord but our bodies and our land.

¹⁹ Why should we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be bondmen to Pharaoh; and give seed, that we may live, and not die, and that the land be not desolate.

²⁰ And Joseph bought all the soil of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them; and the land became Pharaoh's.

²¹ And as for the people, he removed them into the cities, from [one] end of the borders of Egypt even to the [other] end of it.

²² Only the land of the priests he did not buy; for the priests had an assigned portion from Pharaoh, and ate their assigned portion which Pharaoh had given them; so they did not sell their land.

²³ And Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and sow the land.

²⁴ And it shall come to pass in the increase that ye shall give the fifth to Pharaoh, and the four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones.

²⁵ And they said, Thou hast saved us alive. Let us find favour in the eyes of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's bondmen.

²⁶ And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day, [that] the fifth should be for Pharaoh, except the land of the priests: theirs alone did not become Pharaoh's.

²⁷ And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen; and they had possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly.

²⁸ And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; and the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were a hundred and forty-seven years.

²⁹ And the days of Israel approached that he should die. And he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favour in thine eyes, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me: bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt;

³⁰ but when I shall lie with my fathers, thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their sepulchre. And he said, I will do according to thy word.

³¹ And he said, Swear to me; and he swore to him. And Israel worshipped on the bed's head.