I looked out in the night and saw a man riding on a chestnut horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in the valley. Behind him were chestnut, brown, and white horses.
Then another horse went out, a fiery red one, and its rider was allowed to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. And a large sword was given to him.
‘Write to the angel of the church in Ephesus: Thus says the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands:
Sword, awake against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate – this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.
Instead of the thorn bush, a cypress will come up, and instead of the briar, a myrtle will come up; this will stand as a monument for the Lord, an everlasting sign that will not be destroyed.
I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him.
For the High and Exalted One, who lives for ever, whose name is holy, says this: ‘I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed.
When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua approached him and asked, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies? ’
So they proclaimed and spread this news throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, ‘Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make shelters, just as it is written.’
On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo:
They reported to the angel of the Lord standing among the myrtle trees, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and at the moment the whole earth is calm and quiet.’