Zechariah 1:1 says Yahweh's word came to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius. Like Haggai, Zechariah spoke to people who had returned to Jerusalem. His first message calls them to repentance: return to me, says Yahweh of Armies, and I will return to you. Their fathers ignored the former prophets, yet God's words still came true. God asks, your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?
Zechariah 1:7 dates the next message to the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month. That night Zechariah saw the first of eight visions: a man on a red horse among the myrtle trees in a hollow, with red, sorrel, and white horses behind him. The text explains that Yahweh sent them to walk back and forth through the earth, and they report that all the earth sits still and is at rest. Yahweh's angel then pleads, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem?
Yahweh answered the angel with kind and comforting words. He is jealous for Jerusalem, angry with nations that added to its suffering, and says, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it. In a second vision Zechariah sees four horns, which the angel says scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, and four craftsmen who come to terrify them and cast them down. The text gives these explanations, and we do not add more than it says. Christians believe these visions show that God sees his people's suffering and acts with mercy.