And I say unto the messenger who is speaking with me, 'Whither are they causing the ephah to go?'

He answered me, "To the land of Shinar, so they can build a temple to the woman in the basket. Then when its preparations are complete, the basket will be set there in its place."

And I turn back, and lift up mine eyes, and look, and lo, four chariots are coming forth from between two of the mountains, and the mountains are mountains of brass.

In the first chariot are red horses, and in the second chariot brown horses,

Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord?

And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.

The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward the south country.

All these strong ones are scattering; they have sought permission to go and walk about over the earth." The Lord had said, "Go! Walk about over the earth!" So they are doing so.

Then crying out to me, he said, See, those who are going to the north country have given rest to the spirit of the Lord in the north country.

Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, which are come from Babylon, and come thou the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah;

You are to tell him: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Here is a man whose name is Branch; He will branch out from His place and build the Lord’s temple.

Yes, [you are to build a temple of the Lord, but] it is He who shall build the [ultimate] temple of the Lord, and He shall bear the honor and majesty [as the only begotten of the Father] and sit and rule on His throne. And He shall be a Priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between the two offices [Priest and King].”’

And they that are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.

speaking unto the priests who are at the house of Jehovah of Hosts, and unto the prophets, saying, 'Do I weep in the fifth month -- being separated -- as I have done these so many years?'

When ye fasted with mourning in the fifth and in the seventh months -- even these seventy years -- did ye keep the fast to Me -- Me? And when ye eat, and when ye drink, is it not ye who are eating, and ye who are drinking?

Are not these the words that Jehovah cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and at peace, and her cities round about her, when the south and the lowland were inhabited?

You are not to wrong the widow, orphans, the foreigner, or the poor, and you are not to plan evil against each other.

Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.' Thus the land had become desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful land a waste."

These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am angry about the fate of Zion, I am angry about her with great wrath.

And broad places of the city are full of boys and girls, Playing in its broad places.

Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Let your hands be strong, Ye who are hearing in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets, That in the day the house of Jehovah of Hosts Hath been founded, the temple is to be built.

These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates:

And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD.

Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: The fast of the fourth, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth months, are to the house of Judah for joy and for rejoicing, and for pleasant appointed seasons, and the truth and the peace they have loved.

An Oracle

The word of the Lord
is against the land of Hadrach,
and Damascus is its resting place—
for the eyes of men
and all the tribes of Israel
are on the Lord—

and Hamath, also, which bordereth thereon; Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise.

Then I will camp around My house [as a guard] because of an army,
Because of him who passes by and returns;
And no oppressor will again overrun them (Israel),
For now My eyes are upon them [providentially protecting them].

The LORD of the Heavenly Armies will defend them; they will devour and conquer those who sling stones. They will drink and be boisterous like those who are drunk. They will be filled to the brim with blood, like the corners of the altar.

And saved them hath Jehovah their God In that day, as a flock of His people, For stones of a crown are displaying themselves over His ground.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

“My anger is kindled against the shepherds [who are not true shepherds],
And I shall punish the male goats (leaders);
For the Lord of hosts has visited His flock, the house of Judah (the Southern Kingdom),
And will make them like His beautiful and majestic horse in the battle.

Howl, fir tree; for the cedar is fallen; because the mighty are spoiled: howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; for the forest of the vintage is come down.

[Listen to] the wailing of the shepherds, for their splendor is ruined! [Listen to] the roar of [the] young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are ruined!

Whose buyers slay them, and are not guilty, And their sellers say, Blessed is Jehovah, And I am rich, And their shepherds have no pity on them.

Then said I, I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let them that are left eat every one the flesh of another.

and it is broken in that day, and know well do the afflicted of the flock who are observing me, that it is a word of Jehovah.

For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, who will not visit those that are cut off, neither will seek those that are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the flesh of the fat'sheep , and will tear their hoofs in pieces.

The word of the Lord about Israel. The Lord by whom the heavens are stretched out and the bases of the earth put in place, and the spirit of man formed inside him, has said:

"Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of surfeit, unto all the people that are round about her: Yea Judah himself also shall be in the siege against Jerusalem.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone to all the peoples, All loading it are completely pressed down, And gathered against it have been all nations of the earth.

And the chieftains of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Jehovah of hosts their God.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, I seek to destroy all the nations Who are coming in against Jerusalem,

Moreover, upon the house of David and upon the citizens of Jerusalem, will I pour out the spirit of grace and prayer, so that they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall beweep him, as men mourn for their only begotten son: Yea, and be sorry for him, as men are sorry for their first child

All the families that are left, Every family apart, and their women apart!

And it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I cut off the names of the idols from the land, And they are not remembered any more, And also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I cause to pass away from the land.

And if anyone goes on acting as a prophet, then his father and his mother who gave him life will say to him, You may not go on living, for you are saying what is false in the name of the Lord; and his father and his mother will put a sword through him when he does so.

And it hath come to pass, in that day, Ashamed are the prophets, each of his vision, in his prophesying, And they put not on a hairy robe to deceive.

And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

And it hath come to pass, In all the land, an affirmation of Jehovah, Two parts in it are cut off -- they expire, And the third is left in it.

And I will bring the [remaining] third into the fire, and I will refine them like [one] refines silver, and I will test them like [one] tests gold. They will call my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'Yahweh [is] my God.'"

And I have gathered all the nations unto Jerusalem to battle, And captured hath been the city, And spoiled have been the houses, And the women are lain with, Gone forth hath half the city in a removal, And the remnant of the people are not cut off from the city.

And ye have fled to the valley of My mountains, For join doth the valley of the mountains to Azal, And ye have fled as ye fled before the shaking, In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, And come in hath Jehovah my God, All holy ones are with Thee.

And this is the plague with which Jehovah Doth plague all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem, He hath consumed away its flesh, And it is standing on its feet, And its eyes are consumed in their holes, And its tongue is consumed in their mouth.

And so is the plague of the horse, of the mule, Of the camel, and of the ass, And of all the cattle that are in these camps, As this plague.

And it shall come to pass, that all that are left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, Jehovah of hosts, and to celebrate the feast of tabernacles.

And every caldron in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be Holy unto Yahweh of hosts, - So shall all who are offering sacrifice, come in, and take of them, and boil therein, - Neither shall there be a merchant any more in the house of Yahweh of hosts, in that day.

Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.

"A son honors his father and a servant his master. So if I'm a father, where is my honor? And if I'm a master, where is my respect?" says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies to you priests who are despising my name. "But you ask, "How have we despised your name?'

Ye are bringing nigh on Mine altar polluted bread, And ye have said: 'In what have we polluted Thee?' In your saying: 'The table of Jehovah -- it is despicable,'

And ye are polluting it in your saying, 'The table of Jehovah -- it is polluted, As to its fruit -- despicable is its food.'

If ye hearken not, and if ye lay it not to heart, To give honour to My name, said Jehovah of Hosts, I have sent against you the curse, And I have cursed your blessings, Yea, I have also cursed it, Because ye are not laying it to heart.

But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hosts.

And I also, I have made you despised and low before all the people, Because ye are not keeping My ways, And are accepting persons in the law.

{Do we not all have} one father? Has not one God created us? Why [then] are we unfaithful {to one another}, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

"You have wearied the LORD with your words. You ask, "How have we wearied you?' By your saying, "All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD and he's pleased with them,' or "Where is the God of justice?'"

Lo, I am sending My messenger, And he hath prepared a way before Me, And suddenly come in unto his temple Doth the Lord whom ye are seeking, Even the messenger of the covenant, Whom ye are desiring, Lo, he is coming, said Jehovah of Hosts.

And I will come near to you for judging; I will quickly be a witness against the wonder-workers, against those who have been untrue in married life, against those who take false oaths; against those who keep back from the servant his payment, and who are hard on the widow and the child without a father, who do not give his rights to the man from a strange country, and have no fear of me, says the Lord of armies.

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

Doth man deceive God? but ye are deceiving Me, And ye have said: 'In what have we deceived Thee?' The tithe and the heave-offering!

Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

And declared you happy have all the nations, For ye are a delightful land, said Jehovah of Hosts.

“Your words against Me are harsh,” says the Lord.

Yet you ask: “What have we spoken against You?”

And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the arrogant (proud, self-righteous, haughty), and every evildoer shall be stubble; and the day that is coming shall set them on fire,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

And ye have trodden down the wicked, For they are ashes under the soles of your feet, In the day that I am appointing, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”

Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

they answered him, in Bethlehem of Judea: for these are the words of the prophet;

‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are not in any way least among the leaders of Judah;
For from you shall come a Ruler
Who will shepherd My people Israel.’”

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.

But when he saw a number of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Offspring of snakes, at whose word are you going in flight from the wrath to come?

Truly, I give baptism with water to those of you whose hearts are changed; but he who comes after me is greater than I, whose shoes I am not good enough to take up: he will give you baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire:

But John tried to stop him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?"

And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

And he said [mockingly] to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,

‘He will command His angels concerning You [to serve, care for, protect and watch over You]’;

and

‘They will lift you up on their hands,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus said to him, "On the other hand it is written, 'You are not to put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Then Jesus said to him, "Go away, Satan! For it is written: 'You are to worship the Lord your God and serve only him.'"

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee [in the district] of the Gentiles—

the people who lived [there] in [spiritual] darkness saw a great light. Light shone upon these people, who lived in an area that was under the shadow of death."

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.