Judgment on Judah’s Enemies
2 Gather together, yes, gather,
O shameless nation,
2 before the decree takes effect1
—before the day passes away like chaff—
before there comes upon you
the burning anger of the Lord,
before there comes upon you
the day of the anger of the Lord.
3 vSeek the Lord, all you whumble of the land,
who do his just commands;2
seek righteousness; seek humility;
perhaps you may be hidden
on the day of the anger of the Lord.
4 xFor yGaza shall be deserted,
and Ashkelon shall become a desolation;
Ashdod’s people shall be driven out at noon,
and Ekron shall be uprooted.
5 Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast,
you nation of the zCherethites!
The word of the Lord is against you,
O Canaan, land of the Philistines;
and I will destroy you auntil no inhabitant is left.
6 And you, O seacoast, shall be pastures,
with meadows3 for shepherds
and folds for flocks.
7 The seacoast shall become the possession
of the bremnant of the house of Judah,
on which they shall graze,
and in the houses of Ashkelon
they shall lie down at evening.
For the Lord their God will be mindful of them
and crestore their fortunes.
8 “I have heard the taunts of dMoab
and the revilings of the eAmmonites,
how they have taunted my people
and made boasts against their territory.
9 Therefore, as I live,” declares the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel,
“Moab shall become flike Sodom,
and the Ammonites like Gomorrah,
a land possessed by nettles and salt pits,
and a waste forever.
The remnant of my people shall plunder them,
and the survivors of my nation shall possess them.”
10 This shall be their lot in return for their gpride,
because they taunted and boasted
against the people of the Lord of hosts.
11 The Lord will be awesome against them;
for he will famish all the gods of the earth,
and to him shall bow down,
each in its place,
all the lands of the nations.
12 You also, O Cushites,
shall be slain by my sword.
13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north
and destroy Assyria,
and he will make Nineveh a desolation,
a dry waste like the desert.
14 Herds shall lie down in her midst,
all kinds of beasts;4
even the owl and the hedgehog5
shall lodge in her capitals;
a voice shall hoot in the window;
devastation will be on the threshold;
for her cedar work will be laid bare.
15 This is the hexultant city
that lived securely,
that said in her heart,
i“I am, and there is no one else.”
What a desolation she has become,
a lair for wild beasts!
jEveryone who passes by her
hisses and shakes his fist.
Judgment on Jerusalem and the Nations
3 Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
the koppressing city!
2 She listens to no voice;
she laccepts no correction.
She does not trust in the Lord;
she does not draw near to her God.
3 Her officials within her
are roaring lions;
her judges are mevening wolves
that leave nothing till the morning.
4 Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests nprofane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.
5 The Lord within her is righteous;
ohe does no injustice;
every morning he shows forth his justice;
each dawn he does not fail;
but the unjust knows no shame.
6 “I have cut off nations;
their battlements are in ruins;
I have laid waste their streets
so that no one walks in them;
their cities have been made desolate,
without a man, pwithout an inhabitant.
7 I said, ‘Surely you will fear me;
you will accept correction.
Then your1 dwelling would not be cut off
according to all that I have appointed against you.’2
But all the more they were eager
to make all their deeds corrupt.
8 “Therefore wait for me,” declares the Lord,
“for the day when I rise up to seize the prey.
For my decision is to gather nations,
to assemble kingdoms,
to qpour out upon them my indignation,
all my burning anger;
for rin the fire of my jealousy
all the earth shall be consumed.
The Conversion of the Nations
9 “For at that time sI will change the speech of the peoples
to a pure speech,
that all of them may call upon the name of the Lord
and serve him with one accord.
10 From beyond the rivers of tCush
my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed ones,
shall bring my offering.
11 “On that day you shall not be put to shame
because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me;
for then I will remove from your midst
your proudly exultant ones,
and you shall no longer be haughty
in my holy mountain.
12 But I will leave in your midst
a people humble and lowly.
They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord,
13 those who are left in Israel;
they shall do no injustice
and speak no lies,
unor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and vnone shall make them afraid.”
Israel’s Joy and Restoration
14 wSing aloud, O daughter of Zion;
shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart,
O daughter of Jerusalem!
15 The Lord has taken away the judgments against you;
he has cleared away your enemies.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is xin your midst;
you shall never again fear evil.
16 On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
“Fear not, O Zion;
ylet not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will zrejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
so that you will no longer suffer reproach.3
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And aI will save the lame
and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
and renown in all the earth.
20 At that time I will bring you in,
at the time when I gather you together;
for I will make you renowned and praised
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I brestore your fortunes
before your eyes,” says the Lord.
Haggai
The Command to Rebuild the Temple
1 In the second year of aDarius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of bHaggai the prophet to cZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to dJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your epaneled houses, fwhile this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: gConsider your ways. 6 hYou have sown much, and harvested little. iYou eat, but you never have enough; jyou drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns kwages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the ldew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
The People Obey the Lord
12 Then mZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, n“I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
The Coming Glory of the Temple
2 In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: 2 “Speak now to oZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? pIs it not as nothing in your eyes? 4 Yet now qbe strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the Lord. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. Work, for rI am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 according to the scovenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. tMy Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: uYet once more, in a little while, vI will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the wtreasures of all nations shall come in, and I will xfill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’”
Blessings for a Defiled People
10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, 11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests about the law: 12 y‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, “No.” 13 Then Haggai said, “If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, z“It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, “So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. 15 Now then, aconsider from this day onward.1 Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? bWhen2 one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 I struck you and all the products of your toil with cblight and with mildew and with hail, dyet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. 18 Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the efoundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider: 19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the fvine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will gbless you.”
Zerubbabel Chosen as a Signet
20 The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, 21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to hshake the heavens and the earth, 22 and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, every one by the sword of his brother. 23 On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel imy servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a3 jsignet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”
Zechariah
A Call to Return to the Lord
1 In the eighth month, in the second year of aDarius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet bZechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 2 “The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: cReturn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 dDo not be like your fathers, to whom the eformer prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, fReturn from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did gnot hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? 6 But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not hovertake your fathers? So they repented and said, i‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”
A Vision of a Horseman
7 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, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying, 8 “I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a jred horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and kwhite horses. 9 Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ The langel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ 10 So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to mpatrol the earth.’ 11 And they answered the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, ‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth remains at rest.’ 12 Then the angel of the Lord said, ‘O Lord of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these nseventy years?’ 13 And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. 14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: oI am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15 And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are pat ease; for qwhile I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 16 Therefore, rthus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; smy house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the tmeasuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17 Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and uagain choose Jerusalem.’”
A Vision of Horns and Craftsmen
18 1 And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns! 19 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he said to me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” 20 Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. 21 And I said, “What are these coming to do?” He said, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
