Bible in 90 Days

1 This is the message that came to the prophet Habakkuk in a vision from God:

² O Lord, how long must I call for help before you will listen? I shout to you in vain; there is no answer. “Help! Murder!” I cry, but no one comes to save. ³ Must I forever see this sin and sadness all around me?

Wherever I look I see oppression and bribery and men who love to argue and to fight. ⁴ The law is not enforced, and there is no justice given in the courts, for the wicked far outnumber the righteous, and bribes and trickery prevail.

⁵ The Lord replied: “Look, and be amazed! You will be astounded at what I am about to do! For I am going to do something in your own lifetime that you will have to see to believe. ⁶ I am raising a new force on the world scene, the Chaldeans,^[a] a cruel and violent nation who will march across the world and conquer it. ⁷ They are notorious for their cruelty. They do as they like, and no one can interfere. ⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards. They are a fierce people, more fierce than wolves at dusk. Their cavalry move proudly forward from a distant land; like eagles they come swooping down to pounce upon their prey. ⁹ All opposition melts away before the terror of their presence. They collect captives like sand.

¹⁰ “They scoff at kings and princes and scorn their forts. They simply heap up dirt against their walls and capture them! ^11 [b]They sweep past like wind and are gone, but their guilt is deep, for they claim their power is from their gods.”

¹² O Lord my God, my Holy One, you who are eternal—is your plan in all of this to wipe us out? Surely not! O God our Rock, you have decreed the rise of these Chaldeans to chasten and correct us for our awful sins. ¹³ We are wicked, but they far more! Will you, who cannot allow sin in any form, stand idly by while they swallow us up? Should you be silent while the wicked destroy those who are better than they?

¹⁴ Are we but fish, to be caught and killed? Are we but creeping things that have no leader to defend them from their foes? ¹⁵ Must we be strung up on their hooks and dragged out in their nets, while they rejoice? ¹⁶ Then they will worship their nets and burn incense before them! “These are the gods who make us rich,” they’ll say.

¹⁷ Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless wars?

2 I will climb my watchtower now and wait to see what answer God will give to my complaint.

² And the Lord said to me, “Write my answer on a billboard,^[c] large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others. ³ But these things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow,^[d] do not despair, for these things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day!

⁴ “Note this: Wicked men trust themselves alone as these Chaldeans do,^[e] and fail; but the righteous man trusts in me and lives! ⁵ What’s more, these arrogant Chaldeans are betrayed by all their wine, for it is treacherous. In their greed they have collected many nations, but like death and hell, they are never satisfied. ⁶ The time is coming when all their captives will taunt them, saying: ‘You robbers! At last justice has caught up with you! Now you will get your just deserts for your oppression and extortion!’

⁷ “Suddenly your debtors will rise up in anger and turn on you and take all you have, while you stand trembling and helpless. ⁸ You have ruined many nations; now they will ruin you. You murderers! You have filled the countryside with lawlessness and all the cities too.

⁹ “Woe to you for getting rich by evil means, attempting to live beyond the reach of danger. ¹⁰ By the murders you commit, you have shamed your name and forfeited your lives. ¹¹ The very stones in the walls of your homes cry out against you, and the beams in the ceilings echo what they say.

¹² “Woe to you who build cities with money gained from murdering and robbery! ¹³ Has not the Lord decreed that godless nations’ gains will turn to ashes in their hands? They work so hard, but all in vain!

¹⁴ (“The time will come when all the earth is filled, as the waters fill the sea, with an awareness of the glory of the Lord.)

¹⁵ “Woe to you for making your neighboring lands reel and stagger like drunkards beneath your blows, and then gloating over their nakedness and shame. ¹⁶ Soon your own glory will be replaced by shame. Drink down God’s judgment on yourselves. Stagger and fall! ¹⁷ You cut down the forests of Lebanon—now you will be cut down! You terrified the wild animals you caught in your traps—now terror will strike you because of all your murdering and violence in cities everywhere.

¹⁸ “What profit was there in worshiping all your man-made idols? What a foolish lie that they could help! What fools you were to trust what you yourselves had made. ¹⁹ Woe to those who command their lifeless wooden idols to arise and save them, who call out to the speechless stone to tell them what to do. Can images speak for God? They are overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath at all inside!

²⁰ “But the Lord is in his holy Temple; let all the earth be silent before him.”

3 This is the prayer of triumph^[f] that Habakkuk sang before the Lord:

² O Lord, now I have heard your report, and I worship you in awe for the fearful things you are going to do. In this time of our deep need, begin again to help us, as you did in years gone by. Show us your power to save us. In your wrath, remember mercy.

³ I see God moving across the deserts from Mount Sinai.^[g] His brilliant splendor fills the earth and sky; his glory fills the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise! What a wonderful God he is! ⁴ From his hands flash rays of brilliant light. He rejoices in his awesome power.^{[h] 5} Pestilence marches before him; plague follows close behind. ⁶ He stops; he stands still for a moment, gazing at the earth. Then he shakes the nations, scattering the everlasting mountains and leveling the hills. His power is just the same as always! ⁷ I see the people of Cushan and of Midian in mortal fear.

^8-9 Was it in anger, Lord, you smote the rivers and parted the sea? Were you displeased with them? No, you were sending your chariots of salvation! All saw your power! Then springs burst forth upon the earth at your command!^{[i] 10} The mountains watched and trembled. Onward swept the raging water. The mighty deep cried out, announcing its surrender to the Lord.^{[j] 11} The lofty sun and moon began to fade, obscured by brilliance from your arrows and the flashing of your glittering spear.

¹² You marched across the land in awesome anger and trampled down the nations in your wrath. ¹³ You went out to save your chosen people. You crushed the head of the wicked and laid bare his bones from head to toe. ¹⁴ You destroyed with their own weapons those who came out like a whirlwind, thinking Israel would be an easy prey.

¹⁵ Your horsemen marched across the sea; the mighty waters piled high. ¹⁶ I tremble when I hear all this; my lips quiver with fear. My legs give way beneath me, and I shake in terror. I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us.

¹⁷ Even though the fig trees are all destroyed, and there is neither blossom left nor fruit; though the olive crops all fail, and the fields lie barren; even if the flocks die in the fields and the cattle barns are empty, ¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will be happy in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength; he will give me the speed of a deer and bring me safely over the mountains.

(A note to the choir director: When singing this ode, the choir is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.)

1 Subject: a message from the Lord.

To: Zephaniah (son of Cushi, grandson of Gedaliah, great-grandson of Amariah, and great-great-grandson of Hezekiah). When: During the reign of Josiah (son of Amon) king of Judah.^[k]

² “I will sweep away everything in all your land,” says the Lord. “I will destroy it to the ground. ³ I will sweep away both men and animals alike. Mankind and all the idols that he worships—all will vanish. Even the birds of the air and the fish in the sea will perish. ⁴ I will crush Judah and Jerusalem with my fist and destroy every remnant of those who worship Baal; I will put an end to their idolatrous priests, so that even the memory of them will disappear. ⁵ They go up on their roofs and bow to the sun, moon, and stars. They ‘follow the Lord,’ but worship Molech too! I will destroy them. ⁶ And I will destroy those who formerly worshiped the Lord, but now no longer do, and those who never loved him and never wanted to.”

⁷ Stand in silence in the presence of the Lord. For the awesome Day of his Judgment has come; he has prepared a great slaughter of his people and has chosen their executioners.^{[l] 8} “On that Day of Judgment I will punish the leaders and princes of Judah and all others wearing heathen clothing.^{[m] 9} Yes, I will punish those who follow heathen customs and who rob and kill to fill their masters’ homes with evil gain of violence and fraud. ¹⁰ A cry of alarm will begin at the farthest gate of Jerusalem, coming closer and closer until the noise of the advancing army reaches the very top of the hill where the city is built.

¹¹ “Wail in sorrow, you people of Jerusalem. All your greedy businessmen, all your loan sharks—all will die.

¹² “I will search with lanterns in Jerusalem’s darkest corners to find and punish those who sit contented in their sins, indifferent to God, thinking he will leave them alone. ¹³ They are the very ones whose property will be plundered by the enemy, whose homes will be ransacked; they will never have a chance to live in the new homes they have built. They will never drink wine from the vineyards they have planted.

¹⁴ “That terrible day is near. Swiftly it comes—a day when strong men will weep bitterly. ¹⁵ It is a day of the wrath of God poured out; it is a day of terrible distress and anguish, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, of clouds, blackness, ¹⁶ trumpet calls, and battle cries; down go the walled cities and strongest battlements!

¹⁷ “I will make you as helpless as a blind man searching for a path because you have sinned against the Lord; therefore, your blood will be poured out into the dust and your bodies will lie there rotting on the ground.”

¹⁸ Your silver and gold will be of no use to you in that day of the Lord’s wrath. You cannot ransom yourselves with it.^[n] For the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy. He will make a speedy riddance of all the people of Judah.

2 Gather together and pray, you shameless nation, ² while there still is time—before judgment begins and your opportunity is blown away like chaff; before the fierce anger of the Lord falls and the terrible day of his wrath begins. ³ Beg him to save you, all who are humble—all who have tried to obey.

Walk humbly and do what is right; perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you from his wrath in that day of doom.

⁴ Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron—these Philistine cities, too, will be rooted out and left in desolation. ⁵ And woe to you Philistines^[o] living on the coast and in the land of Canaan, for the judgment is against you too. The Lord will destroy you until not one of you is left. ⁶ The coastland will become a pasture, a place of shepherd camps and folds for sheep.

⁷ There the little remnant of the tribe of Judah will be pastured. They will lie down to rest in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the Lord God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.

⁸ “I have heard the taunts of the people of Moab and Ammon, mocking my people and invading their land. ⁹ Therefore as I live,” says the Lord Almighty, God of Israel, “Moab and Ammon will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and become a place of stinging nettles, salt pits, and eternal desolation; those of my people who are left will plunder and possess them.”

¹⁰ They will receive the wages of their pride, for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord Almighty. ¹¹ The Lord will do terrible things to them. He will starve out all those gods of foreign powers, and everyone shall worship him, each in his own land throughout the world.

¹² You Ethiopians, too, will be slain by his sword, ¹³ and so will the lands of the north; he will destroy Assyria and make its great capital Nineveh a desolate wasteland like a wilderness. ¹⁴ That once proud city will become a pastureland for sheep. All sorts of wild animals will have their homes in her. Hedgehogs will burrow there; the vultures and the owls will live among the ruins of her palaces, hooting from the gaping windows; the ravens will croak from her doors. All her cedar paneling will lie open to the wind and weather.

¹⁵ This is the fate of that vast, prosperous city that lived in such security, that said to herself, “In all the world there is no city as great as I.” But now—see how she has become a place of utter ruins, a place for animals to live! Everyone passing that way will mock or shake his head in disbelief.^[p]

3 Woe to filthy, sinful Jerusalem, city of violence and crime. ² In her pride she won’t listen even to the voice of God. No one can tell her anything; she refuses all correction. She does not trust the Lord nor seek for God.

³ Her leaders are like roaring lions hunting for their victims—out for everything that they can get. Her judges are like ravenous wolves at evening time, who by dawn have left no trace of their prey.

⁴ Her “prophets” are liars seeking their own gain; her priests defile the Temple by their disobedience to God’s laws.

⁵ But the Lord is there within the city, and he does no wrong. Day by day his justice is more evident, but no one heeds—the wicked know no shame.

⁶ “I have cut off many nations, laying them waste to their farthest borders; I have left their streets in silent ruin and their cities deserted without a single survivor to remember what happened. ⁷ I thought, ‘Surely they will listen to me now—surely they will heed my warnings, so that I’ll not need to strike again.’ But no; however much I punish them, they continue all their evil ways from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn.” ⁸ But the Lord says, “Be patient; the time is coming soon when I will stand up and accuse these evil nations. For it is my decision to gather together the kingdoms of the earth and pour out my fiercest anger and wrath upon them. All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

⁹ “At that time I will change the speech of my returning people to pure Hebrew^[q] so that all can worship the Lord together. ¹⁰ My scattered people who live in the Sudan,^[r] beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, will come with their offerings, asking me to be their God again. ¹¹ And then you will no longer need to be ashamed of yourselves, for you will no longer be rebels against me. I will remove all your proud and arrogant people from among you; there will be no pride or haughtiness on my holy mountain. ¹² Those who are left will be the poor and the humble, and they will trust in the name of the Lord. ¹³ They will not be sinners, full of lies and deceit. They will live quietly, in peace, and lie down in safety, and no one will make them afraid.”

¹⁴ Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ For the Lord will remove his hand of judgment and disperse the armies of your enemy. And the Lord himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! At last your troubles will be over—you need fear no more.

¹⁶ On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, “Cheer up, don’t be afraid. ^17-18 For the Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will give you victory. He will rejoice over you with great gladness; he will love you and not accuse you.” Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord himself exulting over you in happy song.

“I have gathered your wounded and taken away your reproach. ¹⁹ And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you. I will save the weak and helpless ones, and bring together those who were chased away. I will give glory to my former exiles, mocked and shamed.

²⁰ “At that time, I will gather you together and bring you home again, and give you a good name, a name of distinction among all the peoples of the earth, and they will praise you when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.

1 Subject: a message from the Lord.

To: Haggai the prophet, who delivered it to Zerubbabel (son of Shealtiel), governor of Judah; and to Joshua (son of Josedech), the High Priest—for it was addressed to them.^[s]

When: In late August of the second year of the reign of King Darius I.

² “Why is everyone saying it is not the right time for rebuilding my Temple?” asks the Lord.

^3-4 His reply to them is this: “Is it then the right time for you to live in luxurious homes, when the Temple lies in ruins? ⁵ Look at the result: ⁶ You plant much but harvest little. You have scarcely enough to eat or drink and not enough clothes to keep you warm. Your income disappears, as though you were putting it into pockets filled with holes!

⁷ “Think it over,” says the Lord Almighty. “Consider how you have acted and what has happened as a result! ⁸ Then go up into the mountains, bring down timber, and rebuild my Temple, and I will be pleased with it and appear there in my glory,” says the Lord.

⁹ “You hope for much but get so little. And when you bring it home, I blow it away—it doesn’t last at all. Why? Because my Temple lies in ruins, and you don’t care. Your only concern is your own fine homes. ¹⁰ That is why I am holding back the rains from heaven and giving you such scant crops. ¹¹ In fact, I have called for a drought upon the land, yes, and in the highlands too—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olives and all your other crops, a drought to starve both you and all your cattle and ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.”

¹² Then Zerubbabel (son of Shealtiel), the governor of Judah, and Joshua (son of Josedech), the High Priest, and the few people remaining in the land obeyed Haggai’s message from the Lord their God; they began to worship him in earnest.

¹³ Then the Lord told them (again sending the message through Haggai, his messenger), “I am with you; I will bless you.” ^14-15 And the Lord gave them a desire to rebuild his Temple; so they all gathered in early September of the second year of King Darius’s reign and volunteered their help.

2 In early October of the same year, the Lord sent them this message through Haggai:

² “Ask this question of the governor and High Priest and everyone left in the land:

³ “‘Who among you can remember the Temple as it was before? How glorious it was! In comparison, it is nothing now, is it? ⁴ But take courage, O Zerubbabel and Joshua and all the people; take courage and work, for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty. ⁵ For I promised when you left Egypt that my Spirit would remain among you; so don’t be afraid.’

⁶ “For the Lord Almighty says, ‘In just a little while I will begin to shake the heavens and earth—and the oceans, too, and the dry land. ⁷ I will shake all nations, and the Desire of All Nations^[t] shall come to this Temple, and I will fill this place with my glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ^8-9 ‘The future splendor of this Temple will be greater than the splendor of the first one! For I have plenty of silver and gold to do it! And here I will give peace,’^[u] says the Lord.”

¹⁰ In early December, in the second year of the reign of King Darius, this message came from the Lord through Haggai the prophet:

¹¹ “Ask the priests this question about the law: ¹² ‘If one of you is carrying a holy sacrifice in his robes and happens to brush against some bread or wine or meat, will it too become holy?’”

“No,” the priests replied. “Holiness does not pass to other things that way.”

¹³ Then Haggai asked, “But if someone touches a dead person, and so becomes ceremonially impure, and then brushes against something, does it become contaminated?”

And the priests answered, “Yes.”

¹⁴ Haggai then made his meaning clear. “You people,” he said (speaking for the Lord), “were contaminating your sacrifices by living with selfish attitudes and evil hearts—and not only your sacrifices, but everything else that you did as a ‘service’ to me. ¹⁵ And so everything you did went wrong. But all is different now because you have begun to build the Temple. ^16-17 Before, when you expected a twenty-bushel crop, there were only ten. When you came to draw fifty gallons from the olive press, there were only twenty. I rewarded all your labor with rust and mildew and hail. Yet, even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.

^18-19 “But now note this: From today, this 24th day of the month,^[v] as the foundation of the Lord’s Temple is finished, and from this day onward, I will bless you. Notice, I am giving you this promise now before you have even begun to rebuild the Temple structure, and before you have harvested your grain, and before the grapes, the figs, the pomegranates, and olives have produced their next crops: From this day I will bless you.”

²⁰ Another message came to Haggai from the Lord that same day:

²¹ “Tell Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, ‘I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² to overthrow thrones, destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow their armed might, and brothers and companions will kill each other. ²³ But when that happens, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, and honor you like a signet ring upon my finger; for I have specially chosen you,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

1 Subject: messages from the Lord. These messages from the Lord were given to Zechariah (son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo the prophet) in early November of the second year of the reign of King Darius.

² The Lord Almighty was very angry with your fathers. ³ But he will turn again and favor you if only you return to him. ⁴ Don’t be like your fathers were! The earlier prophets pled in vain with them to turn from all their evil ways.

“Come, return to me,” the Lord God said. But no, they wouldn’t listen; they paid no attention at all.

^5-6 Your fathers and their prophets are now long dead, but remember the lesson they learned, that God’s Word endures! It caught up with them and punished them. Then at last they repented.

“We have gotten what we deserved from God,” they said. “He has done just what he warned us he would.”

⁷ The following February, still in the second year of the reign of King Darius, another message from the Lord came to Zechariah (son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo the prophet), in a vision in the night: ⁸ I saw a Man sitting on a red horse that was standing among the myrtle trees beside a river. Behind him were other horses, red and bay and white, each with its rider.^[w]

⁹ An angel stood beside me, and I asked him, “Sir, what are all those horses for?”

“I’ll tell you,” he replied.

¹⁰ Then the rider on the red horse—he was the Angel of the Lord—answered me, “The Lord has sent them to patrol the earth for him.”

¹¹ Then the other riders reported to the Angel of the Lord, “We have patrolled the whole earth, and everywhere there is prosperity and peace.”

¹² Upon hearing this, the Angel of the Lord prayed this prayer: “O Lord Almighty, for seventy years your anger has raged against Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. How long will it be until you again show mercy to them?”

¹³ And the Lord answered the angel who stood beside me, speaking words of comfort and assurance.

¹⁴ Then the angel said, “Shout out this message from the Lord Almighty: ‘Don’t you think I care about what has happened to Judah and Jerusalem? I am as jealous as a husband for his captive wife. ¹⁵ I am very angry with the heathen nations sitting around at ease, for I was only a little displeased with my people, but the nations afflicted them far beyond my intentions.’ ¹⁶ Therefore the Lord declares: ‘I have returned to Jerusalem filled with mercy; my Temple will be rebuilt,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and so will all Jerusalem.’ ¹⁷ Say it again: ‘The Lord Almighty declares that the cities of Israel will again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Jerusalem and bless her and live in her.’ ”

¹⁸ Then I looked and saw four animal horns!

¹⁹ “What are these?” I asked the angel.

He replied, “They represent the four world powers that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

²⁰ Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths.

²¹ “What have these men come to do?” I asked.

The angel replied, “They have come to take hold of the four horns that scattered Judah so terribly, and to pound them on the anvil and throw them away.”

2 When I looked around me again, I saw a man carrying a yardstick in his hand.

² “Where are you going?” I asked.

“To measure Jerusalem,” he said. “I want to see whether it is big enough for all the people!”

³ Then the angel who was talking to me went over to meet another angel coming toward him.

⁴ “Go tell this young man,” said the other angel, “that Jerusalem will some day be so full of people that she won’t have room enough for all! Many will live outside the city walls, with all their many cattle—and yet they will be safe. ⁵ For the Lord himself will be a wall of fire protecting them and all Jerusalem; he will be the glory of the city.

^6-7 “Come, flee from the land of the north, from Babylon,” says the Lord to all his exiles there; “I scattered you to the winds, but I will bring you back again. Escape, escape to Zion now!” says the Lord.

⁸ “The Lord of Glory has sent me^[x] against the nations that oppressed you, for he who harms you sticks his finger in Jehovah’s eye!

⁹ “I will smash them with my fist and their slaves will be their rulers! Then you will know it was the Lord Almighty who sent me. ¹⁰ Sing, Jerusalem, and rejoice! For I have come to live among you,” says the Lord. ^11-12 “At that time many nations will be converted to the Lord, and they too shall be my people; I will live among them all. Then you will know it was the Lord Almighty who sent me to you. And Judah shall be the Lord’s inheritance in the Holy Land, for God shall once more choose to bless Jerusalem.

¹³ “Be silent, all mankind, before the Lord, for he has come to earth from heaven, from his holy home.”

3 Then the Angel showed me (in my vision) Joshua the High Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord; and Satan was there too, at the Angel’s right hand, accusing Joshua of many things.

² And the Lord said to Satan, “I reject your accusations, Satan;^[y] yes, I, the Lord, for I have decided to be merciful to Jerusalem—I rebuke you. I have decreed mercy to Joshua and his nation; they are like a burning stick pulled out of the fire.”

³ Joshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood before the Angel of the Lord.

⁴ Then the Angel said to the others standing there, “Remove his filthy clothing.” And turning to Joshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”

^5-6 Then I said, “Please, could he also have a clean turban on his head?” So they gave him one.

Then the Angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Joshua and said, ⁷ “The Lord Almighty declares: ‘If you will follow the paths I set for you and do all I tell you to, then I will put you in charge of my Temple, to keep it holy; and I will let you walk in and out of my presence with these angels. ⁸ Listen to me, O Joshua the High Priest, and all you other priests, you are illustrations of the good things to come. Don’t you see?—Joshua represents my servant the Branch^[z] whom I will send. ⁹ He will be the Foundation Stone of the Temple that Joshua is standing beside, and I will engrave this inscription on it seven times:^[aa] I will remove the sins of this land in a single day. ¹⁰ And after that,’ the Lord Almighty declares, ‘you will all live in peace and prosperity, and each of you will own a home of your own where you can invite your neighbors.’”

4 Then the angel who had been talking with me woke me, as though I had been asleep.

² “What do you see now?” he asked.

I answered, “I see a gold lampstand holding seven lamps, and at the top there is a reservoir for the olive oil that feeds the lamps, flowing into them through seven tubes. ³ And I see two olive trees carved upon the lampstand, one on each side of the reservoir. ⁴ What is it, sir?” I asked. “What does this mean?”

⁵ “Don’t you really know?” the angel asked.

“No, sir,” I said, “I don’t.”

⁶ Then he said, “This is God’s message to Zerubbabel:^[ab] ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty—you will succeed because of my Spirit, though you are few and weak.’ ⁷ Therefore no mountain, however high, can stand before Zerubbabel! For it will flatten out before him! And Zerubbabel will finish building this Temple^[ac] with mighty shouts of thanksgiving for God’s mercy, declaring that all was done by grace alone.”

⁸ Another message that I received from the Lord said:

⁹ “Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this Temple, and he will complete it. (Then you will know these messages are from God, the Lord Almighty.) ¹⁰ Do not despise this small beginning, for the eyes of the Lord rejoice to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. For these seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord that see everywhere around the world.”

¹¹ Then I asked him about the two olive trees on each side of the lampstand, ¹² and about the two olive branches that emptied oil into gold bowls through two gold tubes.

¹³ “Don’t you know?” he asked.

“No, sir,” I said.

¹⁴ Then he told me, “They represent the two anointed ones who assist the Lord of all the earth.”

5 I looked up again and saw a scroll flying through the air.

² “What do you see?” he asked.

“A flying scroll!” I replied. “It appears to be about thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide!”

³ “This scroll,” he told me, “represents the words of God’s curse going out over the entire land. It says that all who steal and lie have been judged and sentenced to death.”

⁴ “I am sending this curse into the home of every thief and everyone who swears falsely by my name,” says the Lord Almighty. “And my curse shall remain upon his home and completely destroy it.”

⁵ Then the angel left me for a while, but he returned and said, “Look up! Something is traveling through the sky!”

⁶ “What is it?” I asked.

He replied, “It is a bushel basket filled with the sin prevailing everywhere throughout the land.”

⁷ Suddenly the heavy lead cover on the basket was lifted off, and I could see a woman sitting inside the basket!

⁸ He said, “She represents wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and clamped down the heavy lid again.

⁹ Then I saw two women flying toward us, with wings like those of a stork. And they took the bushel basket and flew off with it, high in the sky.

¹⁰ “Where are they taking her?” I asked the angel.

¹¹ He replied, “To Babylon^[ad] where they will build a temple for the basket, to worship it!”

6 Then I looked up again and saw four chariots coming from between what looked like two mountains made of brass. ² The first chariot was pulled by red horses, the second by black ones, ³ the third by white horses and the fourth by dappled-grays.

⁴ “And what are these, sir?” I asked the angel.

⁵ He replied, “These are the four heavenly spirits who stand before the Lord of all the earth; they are going out to do his work. ⁶ The chariot pulled by the black horses will go north, and the one pulled by white horses will follow it there,^[ae] while the dappled-grays will go south.”

⁷ The red^[af] horses were impatient to be off, to patrol back and forth across the earth, so the Lord said, “Go. Begin your patrol.” So they left at once.

⁸ Then the Lord summoned me and said, “Those who went north have executed my judgment^[ag] and quieted my anger there.”

⁹ In another message the Lord said:

^10-11 “Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah will bring gifts of silver and gold from the Jews exiled in Babylon. The same day they arrive, meet them at the home of Josiah (son of Zephaniah), where they will stay. Accept their gifts and make from them a crown from the silver and gold. Then put the crown on the head of Joshua (son of Josedech) the High Priest. ¹² Tell him that the Lord Almighty says, ‘You represent the Man who will come, whose name is “The Branch”—he will grow up from himself^[ah]—and will build the Temple of the Lord. ¹³ To him belongs the royal title. He will rule both as King and as Priest, with perfect harmony between the two!’

¹⁴ “Then put the crown in the Temple of the Lord, to honor those who gave it—Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and also Josiah. ¹⁵ These three who have come from so far away represent many others who will someday come from distant lands to rebuild the Temple of the Lord. And when this happens, you will know my messages have been from God, the Lord Almighty. But none of this will happen unless you carefully obey the commandments of the Lord your God.”

7 Another message came to me from the Lord in late November of the fourth year of the reign of King Darius.

² The Jews of the city of Bethel had sent a group of men headed by Sharezer, the chief administrative officer of the king, and Regem-melech, to the Lord’s Temple at Jerusalem, to seek his blessing ³ and to speak with the priests and prophets about whether they must continue their traditional custom of fasting and mourning during the month of August each year, as they had been doing for so long.

⁴ This was the Lord’s reply:

⁵ “When you return to Bethel, say to all your people and your priests, ‘During those seventy years of exile when you fasted and mourned in August and October, were you really in earnest about leaving your sins behind and coming back to me? No, not at all! ⁶ And even now in your holy feasts to God, you don’t think of me, but only of the food and fellowship and fun. ⁷ Long years ago, when Jerusalem was prosperous and her southern suburbs out along the plain were filled with people, the prophets warned them that this attitude would surely lead to ruin, as it has.’”

^8-9 Then this message from the Lord came to Zechariah. “Tell them to be honest and fair—and not to take bribes—and to be merciful and kind to everyone. ¹⁰ Tell them to stop oppressing widows and orphans, foreigners and poor people, and to stop plotting evil against each other. ¹¹ Your fathers would not listen to this message. They turned stubbornly away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing me. ¹² They hardened their hearts like flint, afraid to hear the words that God, the Lord Almighty, commanded them—the laws he had revealed to them by his Spirit through the early prophets. That is why such great wrath came down on them from God. ¹³ I called, but they refused to listen, so when they cried to me, I turned away. ¹⁴ I scattered them as with a whirlwind among the far-off nations. Their land became desolate; no one even traveled through it; the Pleasant Land lay bare and blighted.”

8 Again the Lord’s message came to me:

² The Lord Almighty says, “I am greatly concerned—yes, furiously angry—because of all that Jerusalem’s enemies have done to her. ³ Now I am going to return to my land, and I, myself, will live within Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem shall be called ‘The Faithful City,’ and ‘The Holy Mountain,’ and ‘The Mountain of the Lord Almighty.’”

⁴ The Lord Almighty declares that Jerusalem will have peace and prosperity so long that there will once again be aged men and women hobbling through her streets on canes, ⁵ and the streets will be filled with boys and girls at play.

⁶ The Lord says, “This seems unbelievable to you—a remnant, small, discouraged as you are—but it is no great thing for me. ⁷ You can be sure that I will rescue my people from east and west, wherever they are scattered. ⁸ I will bring them home again to live safely in Jerusalem, and they will be my people, and I will be their God, just and true and yet forgiving them their sins!”^[ai]

⁹ The Lord Almighty says, “Get on with the job and finish it! You have been listening long enough! For since you began laying the foundation of the Temple, the prophets have been telling you about the blessings that await you when it’s finished. ¹⁰ Before the work began there were no jobs, no wages, no security; if you left the city, there was no assurance you would ever return, for crime was rampant.

¹¹ “But it is all so different now!” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “For I am sowing peace and prosperity among you. Your crops will prosper; the grapevines will be weighted down with fruit; the ground will be fertile, with plenty of rain; all these blessings will be given to the people left in the land. ¹³ ‘May you be as poor as Judah,’ the heathen used to say to those they cursed! But no longer! For now Judah is a word of blessing, not a curse. ‘May you be as prosperous and happy as Judah is,’ they’ll say. So don’t be afraid or discouraged! Get on with rebuilding the Temple! ^14-15 If you do, I will certainly bless you. And don’t think that I might change my mind. I did what I said I would when your fathers angered me and I promised to punish them, and I won’t change this decision of mine to bless you. ¹⁶ Here is your part: Tell the truth. Be fair. Live at peace with everyone. ¹⁷ Don’t plot harm to others; don’t swear that something is true when it isn’t! How I hate all that sort of thing!” says the Lord.

¹⁸ Here is another message that came to me from the Lord Almighty:

¹⁹ “The traditional fasts and times of mourning you have kept in July, August, October, and January^[aj] are ended. They will be changed to joyous festivals if you love truth and peace! ^20-21 People from around the world will come on pilgrimages and pour into Jerusalem from many foreign cities to attend these celebrations. People will write their friends in other cities and say, ‘Let’s go to Jerusalem to ask the Lord to bless us and be merciful to us. I’m going! Please come with me. Let’s go now!’ ²² Yes, many people, even strong nations, will come to the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem to ask for his blessing and help. ²³ In those days ten men from ten different nations will clutch at the coat sleeves of one Jew and say, ‘Please be my friend, for I know that God is with you.’”

9 This is the message concerning God’s curse on the lands of Hadrach and Damascus, for the Lord is closely watching all mankind, as well as Israel.^[ak]

² “Doomed is Hamath, near Damascus, and Tyre and Sidon too, shrewd though they be. ³ Though Tyre has armed herself to the hilt and become so rich that silver is like dirt to her, and fine gold like dust in the streets, ⁴ yet the Lord will dispossess her and hurl her fortifications into the sea; and she shall be set on fire and burned to the ground.

⁵ “Ashkelon will see it happen and be filled with fear; Gaza will huddle in desperation, and Ekron will shake with terror, for their hopes that Tyre would stop the enemies’ advance will all be dashed. Gaza will be conquered, her king killed, and Ashkelon will be completely destroyed.

⁶ “Foreigners will take over the city of Ashdod, the rich city of the Philistines. ⁷ I will yank her idolatry out of her mouth and pull from her teeth her sacrifices that she eats with blood. Everyone left will worship God and be adopted into Israel as a new clan: the Philistines of Ekron will intermarry with the Jews, just as the Jebusites did so long ago. ⁸ And I will surround my Temple like a guard to keep invading armies from entering Israel. I am closely watching their movements, and I will keep them away; no foreign oppressors will again overrun my people’s land.

⁹ “Rejoice greatly, O my people! Shout with joy! For look—your King is coming! He is the Righteous One, the Victor! Yet he is lowly, riding on a donkey’s colt! ¹⁰ I will disarm all peoples of the earth, including my people in Israel, and he shall bring peace among the nations. His realm shall stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.^[al]

¹¹ “I have delivered you from death in a waterless pit because of the covenant I made with you, sealed with blood. ¹² Come to the place of safety, all you prisoners, for there is yet hope! I promise right now, I will repay you two mercies for each of your woes! ¹³ Judah, you are my bow! Ephraim, you are my arrow! Both of you will be my sword, like the sword of a mighty soldier brandished against the sons of Greece.”

¹⁴ The Lord shall lead his people as they fight! His arrows shall fly like lightning; the Lord God shall sound the trumpet call and go out against his enemies like a whirlwind off the desert from the south. ¹⁵ He will defend his people, and they will subdue their enemies, treading them beneath their feet. They will taste victory and shout with triumph. They will slaughter their foes, leaving horrible carnage everywhere. ^16-17 The Lord their God will save his people in that day, as a Shepherd caring for his sheep. They shall shine in his land as glittering jewels in a crown. How wonderful and beautiful all shall be! The abundance of grain and grapes will make the young men and girls flourish; they will be radiant with health and happiness.

10 Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime, and he will answer with lightning and showers. Every field will become a lush pasture. ² How foolish to ask the idols for anything like that! Fortune-tellers’ predictions are all a bunch of silly lies; what comfort is there in promises that don’t come true? Judah and Israel have been led astray and wander like lost sheep; everyone attacks them, for they have no shepherd to protect them.

³ “My anger burns against your ‘shepherds’—your leaders—and I will punish them—these goats. For the Lord Almighty has arrived to help his flock of Judah. I will make them strong and glorious like a proud steed in battle. ⁴ From them will come the Cornerstone, the Peg on which all hope hangs, the Bow that wins the battle, the Ruler over all the earth.^{[am] 5} They will be mighty warriors for God, grinding their enemies’ faces into the dust beneath their feet. The Lord is with them as they fight; their enemy is doomed.

⁶ “I will strengthen Judah, yes, and Israel too; I will reestablish them because I love them. It will be as though I had never cast them all away, for I, the Lord their God, will hear their cries. ⁷ They shall be like mighty warriors. They shall be happy as with wine. Their children, too, shall see the mercies of the Lord and be glad. Their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord. ⁸ When I whistle to them, they’ll come running, for I have bought them back again. From the few that are left, their population will grow again to former size. ⁹ Though I have scattered them like seeds among the nations, still they will remember me and return again to God; with all their children, they will come home again to Israel. ¹⁰ I will bring them back from Egypt and Assyria and resettle them in Israel—in Gilead and Lebanon; there will scarcely be room for all of them! ¹¹ They shall pass safely through the sea of distress,^[an] for the waves will be held back. The Nile will become dry—the rule of Assyria and Egypt over my people will end.”

¹² The Lord says, “I will make my people strong with power from me! They will go wherever they wish, and wherever they go they will be under my personal care.”