What the Bible Says About Minor Prophets: Definitions and Insights

Scripture

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
² When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”
³ So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
⁵ And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.
⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.
⁷ But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.
⁸ When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son.
⁹ And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”
¹⁰ Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”
¹¹ And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
¹ Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”
² “Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
³ lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born
and make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
⁴ And I will not have mercy on her children, for they are children of whoredom.
⁵ For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
⁶ Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.
⁷ She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’
⁸ And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
⁹ “Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.”
¹⁰ And now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
¹¹ And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.
¹² And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
¹³ And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord.
¹⁴ “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”
¹⁵ And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
¹⁶ “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’”
¹⁷ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.
¹⁸ And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.
¹⁹ And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
²⁰ I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
²¹ “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,”
²² and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel,
²³ And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
¹ And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”
² So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
³ And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”
⁴ For the people of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.
⁵ Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
¹ Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land;
² There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
³ Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.
⁴ Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.
⁵ They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which take away the understanding.
⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
⁷ The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame.
⁸ They feed on the sin of my people;
they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹ And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
¹⁰ They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which take away the understanding.
¹¹ whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding.
¹² My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
¹³ They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
because their shade is good.
¹⁴ I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.
¹⁵ Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Do not enter into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
¹⁶ For Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer. Now the Lord will feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture.
¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.
¹⁸ Their drink is sour; they give themselves to whoring; her rulers dearly love shame.
¹⁹ A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
¹⁰ The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
² And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them.
³ I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.
⁴ Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord.
⁵ The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.
⁶ They shall go with their flocks and herds
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
⁷ They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
⁸ Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin!
⁹ Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I make known what is sure.
¹⁰ The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.
¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth.
¹² Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim,
and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
¹³ When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to the great king.
But he is not able to cure you
or heal your wound.
¹⁴ For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
¹⁵ I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.
¹ “Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.”
² After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
³ Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.
⁴ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.
⁵ Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
⁶ For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.
⁹ As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests band together; they murder on the way to Shechem; they commit villainy.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.
¹¹ For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore the fortunes of my people.
¹ When I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of Samaria;
for they deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
² But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.
³ They do not consider in their hearts
that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them;
they are before my face.
⁴ They are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
⁵ The princes are like those who move the boundary line; I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
⁶ For they are all like a heated oven, whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All their kings have fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.
⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
⁹ Strangers devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.
¹⁰ The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him, for all this.
¹¹ Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
¹² When they go, I will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation.
¹³ Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.
¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
¹⁵ Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
¹⁶ They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.
² Israel cries to me, “My God, we—Israel—know you.”
³ Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.
⁴ They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
⁵ He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
⁶ For it is from Israel; a craftsman made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
⁷ For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild donkey wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers.
¹⁰ Though they hire allies among the nations,
I will soon gather them up.
And the king and princes shall soon writhe
because of the tribute.
¹¹ Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
¹² Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.
¹³ As for my sacrificial offerings, they sacrifice meat and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it shall devour her strongholds.
¹ Rejoice not, O Israel! Exult not like the peoples; for you have played the whore, forsaking your God. You have loved a prostitute’s wages on all threshing floors.
² Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
³ They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
⁴ They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
⁵ What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
⁶ For behold, they are going away from destruction; but Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.
⁷ The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred.
⁸ The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim for my God,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.
¹⁰ Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹² But even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
Woe to them
when I depart from them!
¹³ Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow; but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.
¹⁴ Give them, O Lord— what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
¹⁵ Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;
there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their princes are rebels.
¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.
¹⁷ My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.
¹² Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
² Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.
³ For now they will say: “We have no king, for we do not fear the Lord; and a king—what could he do for us?”
⁴ They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.
⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced over it and over its glory— for it has departed from them.
⁶ The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king.
⁷ Samaria’s king shall perish like a twig on the face of the waters.
⁸ The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.”
⁹ From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?
¹⁰ When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity.
¹¹ Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will put Ephraim to the yoke; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself.
¹² Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
¹³ You have plowed iniquity; you have reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors,
¹⁴ Therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle; mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
¹⁵ Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great evil. In the morning the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.
¹ When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
² The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.
³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of kindness,
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
and I bent down to them and fed them.
⁵ They shall not return to the land of Egypt,
but Assyria shall be their king,
because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ The sword shall rage against their cities,
consume the bars of their gates,
and devour them because of their own counsels.
⁷ My people are bent on turning away from me,
and though they call out to the Most High,
he shall not raise them up at all.
⁸ How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹ I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
¹⁰ They shall go after the Lord; he will roar like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west;
¹¹ They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt,
and like doves from the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.
¹² Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
and the house of Israel with deceit,
but Judah still walks with God
and is faithful to the Holy One.
¹ Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.
² The Lord has an indictment against Judah
and will punish Jacob according to his ways;
he will repay him according to his deeds.
³ In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he strove with God.
⁴ He strove with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He met God at Bethel, and there God spoke with us—
⁵ the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name,
⁶ “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.”
⁷ A merchant, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress.
⁸ Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”
⁹ But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.
¹⁰ I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets gave parables.
¹¹ If Gilead is iniquity,
they shall surely come to nothing.
In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;
their altars also are like stone heaps
on the furrows of the field.
¹² Jacob fled to the land of Aram;
there Israel served for a wife,
and for a wife he guarded sheep.
¹³ The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet,
and due to a prophet, he was guarded.
¹⁴ Ephraim has given bitter provocation; so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him and will repay him for his disgrace.
¹ When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
² And now they sin more and more,
and make for themselves metal images,
idols skillfully made of their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
³ Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
or like the dew that goes early away,
like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
or like smoke from a window.
⁴ But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.
⁵ It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
⁶ but when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.
⁷ So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
⁸ I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
⁹ He destroys you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper.
¹⁰ Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities?
¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is kept in store.
¹³ The pangs of childbirth come for him,
but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
at the opening of the womb.
¹⁴ Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
¹⁵ Though he may flourish among his brothers,
the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,
rising from the wilderness,
and his fountain shall dry up;
his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
of every precious thing.
¹⁶ Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
¹ Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.
² Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.
³ Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”
⁴ I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them.
⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
⁶ his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
⁷ They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
⁸ O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
from me comes your fruit.
⁹ Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.

Hosea 1:1-14:9

Joel 1:1-3:21: ¹ The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel:
² Hear this, you elders; give ear, all inhabitants of the land! Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
³ Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.
⁴ What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.
⁵ Awake, you drunkards, and weep,
and wail, all you drinkers of wine,
because of the sweet wine,
for it is cut off from your mouth.
⁶ For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions’ teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ He has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; he has stripped it bare and cast it away; its branches are made white.
⁸ Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
⁹ The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.
¹⁰ The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
¹¹ Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
¹² The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. The pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.
¹³ Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.
¹⁴ Consecrate a fast;
call a solemn assembly.
Gather the elders
and all the inhabitants of the land
to the house of the Lord your God,
and cry out to the Lord.
¹⁵ Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
¹⁶ Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
¹⁷ The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up.
¹⁸ How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.
¹⁹ To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.
²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
¹ Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming;
² a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
³ Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.
⁴ Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run.
⁵ Like the rumbling of chariots, they leap on the tops of the mountains, like the crackling of a flame of fire devouring the stubble, like a powerful army drawn up for battle.
⁶ Before them peoples are in anguish;
all faces grow pale.
⁷ They charge like warriors;
they scale walls like soldiers.
They all march in line,
not swerving from their paths.
⁸ They do not jostle one another; each marches in his path; they burst through the weapons and are not halted.
⁹ They leap upon the city, they run upon the walls, they climb up into the houses, they enter through the windows like a thief.
¹⁰ The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹¹ The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?
¹² “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;”
¹³ and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.
¹⁴ Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly;
¹⁶ gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
¹⁷ Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare your people, O Lord, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
¹⁸ Then the Lord became jealous for his land
and had pity on his people.
¹⁹ The Lord answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
²⁰ “But I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his vanguard into the eastern sea, and his rear guard into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things.
²¹ “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!”
²² Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit; the fig tree and vine give their full yield.
²³ “Be glad, O children of Zion,
and rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given the early rain for your vindication;
he has poured down for you abundant rain,
the early and the latter rain, as before.
²⁴ The threshing floors shall be full of grain; the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
²⁵ I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
²⁶ You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
²⁷ You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and there is none else. And my people shall never again be put to shame.
¹ “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
² I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,
³ They have cast lots for my people; they have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.
⁴ “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily.
⁵ Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples,
⁶ You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border.
⁷ Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head.
⁸ I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”
⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate for war; stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.
Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into spears;
let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”
¹¹ Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
¹² Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
¹³ Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their evil is great.
¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
¹⁶ The Lord roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
and the heavens and the earth quake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the people of Israel.
¹⁷ “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall never again pass through it.”
¹⁸ “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.”
¹⁹ Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they have shed innocent blood.
²⁰ But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.
²¹ I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, for the Lord dwells in Zion.

Amos 1:1-9:15: ¹ The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
² And he said: “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel withers.”
³ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.
⁴ So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.
⁵ I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the Lord.
⁶ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom.
⁷ So I will send a fire upon the wall of Gaza, and it shall devour her strongholds.
⁸ I will cut off the inhabitants from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” says the Lord God.
⁹ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
¹⁰ So I will send a fire upon the wall of Tyre, and it shall devour her strongholds.
¹¹ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he pursued his brother with the sword and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath forever.
¹² So I will send a fire upon Teman,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Bozrah.
¹³ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
¹⁴ So I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah,
and it shall devour her strongholds,
with shouting on the day of battle,
with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind;
¹⁵ The Lord has spoken: “For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have ripped open pregnant women in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
¹ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.
² So I will send a fire upon Moab,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Kerioth,
and Moab shall die amid uproar,
amid shouting and the sound of the trumpet;
³ And I will cut off the judge from its midst, and will kill all its officials with him,” says the Lord.
⁴ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the Lord, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.
⁵ So I will send a fire upon Judah,
and it shall devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
⁶ Thus says the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals—
⁷ Those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned.
⁸ They lay themselves down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge, and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
⁹ “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks; I destroyed his fruit above and his roots beneath.”
¹⁰ Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness,
to possess the land of the Amorite.
¹¹ And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,
and some of your young men for Nazirites.
Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel? declares the Lord.
¹² “But you made the Nazirites drink wine,
and commanded the prophets,
saying, ‘You shall not prophesy.’”
¹³ “Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.”
¹⁴ “Flight shall perish from the swift,
and the strong shall not retain his strength,
nor shall the mighty save his life.”
¹⁵ he who holds the bow shall not stand, he who is swift of foot shall not save himself, nor shall he who rides the horse save his life.
¹⁶ And he who is stout of heart among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” declares the Lord.
¹ Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
² “You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.
³ “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?”
⁴ “Does a lion roar in the forest, when he has no prey? Does a young lion cry out from his den, if he has taken nothing?”
⁵ Does a bird fall in a snare on the earth, when there is no trap for it? Does a snare spring up from the ground, when it has taken nothing?
⁶ Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city, unless the Lord has done it?
⁷ “For the Lord God does nothing
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.
⁸ The lion has roared; who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?”
⁹ “Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt, and say, ‘Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults within her, and the oppressed in her midst.’”
¹⁰ “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord, “those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
¹¹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: “An adversary shall surround the land and bring down your defenses from you, and your strongholds shall be plundered.”
¹² Thus says the Lord: “As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who dwell in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part of a bed.
¹³ “Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord God, the God of hosts,
¹⁴ “that on the day I punish Israel for his transgressions,
I will punish the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar shall be cut off
and fall to the ground.
¹⁵ “I will strike the winter house along with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall come to an end,” declares the Lord.
¹ “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’”
² The Lord God has sworn by his holiness
that, behold, the days are coming upon you
when they shall take you away with hooks,
even the last of you with fishhooks.
³ “And you shall go out through the breaches, each one straight ahead; and you shall be cast out into Harmon,” declares the Lord.
⁴ “Come to Bethel, and transgress; to Gilgal, and multiply transgression; bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days;”
⁵ Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings, publish them; for so you love to do, O people of Israel,” declares the Lord God.
⁶ “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
⁷ “I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;”
⁸ So two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
⁹ “I struck you with blight and mildew;
your many gardens and your vineyards,
your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
¹⁰ “I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
¹¹ “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning; yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
¹² “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
¹³ For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord, the God of hosts, is his name!
¹ Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
² “Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.”
³ For thus says the Lord God: “The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.”
⁴ For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live;
⁵ “Seek the Lord and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,”
⁶ Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
⁷ O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!
⁸ He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name;
⁹ He makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
¹⁰ They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.
¹¹ Therefore because you trample on the poor
and you exact taxes of grain from him,
you have built houses of hewn stone,
but you shall not dwell in them;
you have planted pleasant vineyards,
but you shall not drink their wine.
¹² For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.
¹³ Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
¹⁴ Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
¹⁵ Hate evil, and love good,
and establish justice in the gate;
it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts,
will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.
¹⁶ Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation,
¹⁷ In all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.
¹⁸ Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light,
¹⁹ It will be as though a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him.
²⁰ Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?
²¹ “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.”
²² Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them.
²³ Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
²⁴ But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
²⁵ “Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?”
²⁶ You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves.
²⁷ Therefore I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.
¹ Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the first of the nations, to whom the house of Israel comes!
² Pass over to Calneh, and see, and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are you better than these kingdoms? Or is their territory greater than your territory,
³ O you who put far away the day of disaster
and bring near the seat of violence
⁴ “Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory and stretch themselves out on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall,”
⁵ who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp and like David invent for themselves instruments of music,
⁶ who drink wine in bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!
⁷ Therefore they shall now be the first of those who go into exile, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away.
⁸ The Lord God has sworn by himself, declares the Lord, the God of hosts: “I abhor the pride of Jacob and hate his strongholds, and I will deliver up the city and all that is in it.”
⁹ If ten men remain in one house, they shall die.
¹⁰ And when one’s relative, the one who anoints him for burial, shall take him up to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say to him who is in the innermost parts of the house, “Is there still anyone with you?” he shall say, “No”; and he shall say, “Silence! We must not mention the name of the Lord.”
¹¹ For behold, the Lord commands, and the great house shall be struck down into fragments, and the little house into bits.
¹² Do horses run on rocks? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood—
¹³ you who rejoice in Lo-debar,
who say, “Have we not by our own strength
captured Karnaim for ourselves?”
¹⁴ “For behold, I will raise up against you a nation,
O house of Israel,” declares the Lord, the God of hosts;
“and they shall oppress you from Lebo-hamath
to the Brook of the Arabah.”
¹ This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, he was forming locusts when the latter growth was just beginning to sprout, and behold, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
² When they had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!”
³ The Lord relented concerning this: “It shall not be,” said the Lord.
⁴ This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire, and it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.
⁵ Then I said, “O Lord God, please cease! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!”
⁶ The Lord relented concerning this: “This also shall not be,” said the Lord God.
⁷ This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand.
⁸ And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them;
⁹ The high places of Isaac shall be made desolate,
and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.”
¹⁰ Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words.
¹¹ “For thus Amos has said, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’”
¹² And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there,
¹³ But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.”
¹⁴ Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs.
¹⁵ But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’
¹⁶ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’
¹⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord: “‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’”
¹ This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit.
² And he said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me, “The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them.
³ The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” declares the Lord God. “So many dead bodies!” “They are thrown everywhere! Silence!”
⁴ Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end,
⁵ saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances,
⁶ that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”
⁷ The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.
⁸ Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who dwells in it,
and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?”
⁹ “And on that day,” declares the Lord God, “I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.”
¹⁰ I will turn your feasts into mourning
and all your songs into lamentation;
I will bring sackcloth on every waist
and baldness on every head;
I will make it like the mourning for an only son
and the end of it like a bitter day.
¹¹ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
¹² They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;
they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.
¹³ “In that day the lovely virgins and the young men shall faint for thirst.”
¹⁴ Those who swear by the Guilt of Samaria, and say, ‘As your god lives, O Dan,’ and, ‘As the way of Beersheba lives,’ they shall fall, and never rise again.”
¹ I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said: “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape.”
² “If they dig into Sheol, from there shall my hand take them; if they climb up to heaven, from there I will bring them down.”
³ “If they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,
from there I will search them out and take them;
and if they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea,
there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.”
⁴ And if they go into captivity before their enemies,
there I will command the sword,
and it shall kill them;
and I will fix my eyes upon them
for evil and not for good.”
⁵ The Lord God of hosts, he who touches the earth and it melts, and all who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises like the Nile, and sinks again, like the Nile of Egypt;
⁶ who builds his upper chambers in the heavens
and founds his vault upon the earth;
⁷ “Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?”
⁸ Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the surface of the ground, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the Lord.
⁹ “For behold, I will command, and shake the house of Israel among all the nations as one shakes with a sieve, but no pebble shall fall to the earth.”
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’
¹¹ “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old,”
¹² that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the Lord who does this.
¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.”
¹⁴ I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

Obadiah 1:1-21: ¹ The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: “Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!”
² Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you shall be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,
in your lofty dwelling,
who say in your heart,
“Who will bring me down to the ground?”
⁴ Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
though your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,
declares the Lord.
⁵ “If thieves came to you, if plunderers came by night— how you have been destroyed!— would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave gleanings?”
⁶ How Esau has been pillaged,
his treasures sought out!
⁷ All your allies have driven you to your border; those at peace with you have deceived you; they have prevailed against you; those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you— you have no understanding.
⁸ “Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of Mount Esau?”
⁹ And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.
¹⁰ Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob,
shame shall cover you,
and you shall be cut off forever.
¹¹ On the day that you stood aloof,
on the day that strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
¹² But do not gloat over the day of your brother in the day of his misfortune; do not rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their ruin; do not boast in the day of distress.
¹³ Do not enter the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; do not gloat over his disaster in the day of his calamity; do not loot his wealth in the day of his calamity.
¹⁴ Do not stand at the crossroads to cut off his fugitives; do not hand over his survivors in the day of distress.
¹⁵ For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head.
¹⁶ For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been.
¹⁷ But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy, and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
¹⁸ The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
and the house of Joseph a flame,
and the house of Esau stubble;
they shall burn them and consume them,
and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.
¹⁹ Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,
and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,
and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰ The exiles of this host of the people of Israel shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
²¹ Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion to rule Mount Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

Jonah 1:1-4:11: ¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.”
³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.
⁴ But the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up.
⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.
⁶ So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”
⁷ And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?”
⁹ And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.”
¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” for the sea grew more and more tempestuous.
¹² He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.”
¹³ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them.
¹⁴ Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not on us innocent blood, for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.”
¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.
¹⁶ Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.
¹⁷ And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
¹ Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish,
² saying, “I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.
³ For you cast me into the deep,
into the heart of the seas,
and the flood surrounded me;
all your waves and your billows
passed over me.
⁴ Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’
⁵ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head.
⁶ I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.
⁷ When my life was fainting away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
into your holy temple.
⁸ Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.
⁹ But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the Lord!
¹⁰ And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land.
¹ Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,
² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.”
³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth.
⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
⁵ And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
⁶ The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
⁷ And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water,
⁸ but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.
⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
¹⁰ When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
¹ But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.
³ Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
⁴ And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
⁵ Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.
⁶ Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.
⁷ But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered.
⁸ When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
¹⁰ And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
¹¹ And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Micah 1:1-7:20: ¹ The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.
² Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
³ For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.
⁴ And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.
⁵ All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
⁶ Therefore I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations.
⁷ All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
⁸ For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals, and mourning like the ostriches.
⁹ For her wound is incurable, and it has come to Judah; it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.
¹⁰ Tell it not in Gath; weep not at all; in Beth-le-aphrah roll yourselves in the dust.
¹¹ Pass on your way, inhabitants of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame; the inhabitants of Zaanan do not come out; the lamentation of Beth-ezel shall take away from you its standing place.
¹² For the inhabitants of Maroth wait anxiously for good, because disaster has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.
¹³ Harness the steeds to the chariots, inhabitants of Lachish; it was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, for in you were found the transgressions of Israel.
¹⁴ Therefore you shall give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath; the houses of Achzib shall be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.
¹⁵ I will again bring a conqueror to you, inhabitants of Mareshah; the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam.
¹⁶ Make yourselves bald and cut off your hair,
for the children of your delight;
make yourselves as bald as the eagle,
for they shall go from you into exile.
¹ Woe to those who devise wickedness
and work evil on their beds!
When the morning dawns, they perform it,
because it is in the power of their hand.
² They covet fields and seize them,
and houses, and take them away;
they oppress a man and his house,
a man and his inheritance.
³ Therefore thus says the Lord: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster.
⁴ In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.”
⁵ Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the Lord.
⁶ “Do not preach”—thus they preach—
“one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.”
⁷ Should this be said, O house of Jacob?
Has the Lord grown impatient?
Are these his deeds?
Do not my words do good
to him who walks uprightly?
⁸ But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly, with no thought of war.
⁹ The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever.
¹⁰ Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.
¹¹ If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people!
¹² I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men.
¹³ The breaker goes up before them;
they break through and pass the gate,
going out by it.
Their king passes on before them,
the Lord at their head.
³ And I said: Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
Is it not for you to know justice?
² you who hate the good and love the evil,
who tear the skin from off my people
and their flesh from off their bones,
³ who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.
⁴ Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.
⁵ Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray, who cry “Peace” when they have something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing into their mouths.
⁶ Therefore it shall be night to you, without vision, and darkness to you, without divination. The sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be black over them;
⁷ The seers shall be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame; they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.
⁸ But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.
⁹ Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,
¹⁰ They build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.
¹¹ Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
its priests teach for a price;
its prophets practice divination for money;
yet they lean on the Lord and say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
No disaster shall come upon us.”
¹² Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins,
and the mountain of the house a wooded height.
¹ It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it.
² and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
³ He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
⁴ But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
⁵ For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
forever and ever.
⁶ In that day, declares the Lord,
I will assemble the lame
and gather those who have been driven away
and those whom I have afflicted.
⁷ and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
⁸ And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.
⁹ Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished, that pain seized you like a woman in labor?
¹⁰ Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor, for now you shall go out from the city and dwell in the open country; you shall go to Babylon. There you shall be rescued; there the Lord will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
¹¹ Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, “Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.”
¹² But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor.
¹³ Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples; and shall devote their gain to the Lord, their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.
¹ Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek.
² But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
³ Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel.
⁴ And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
⁵ And he shall be their peace.
⁶ They shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land
and treads within our border.
⁷ Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which delay not for a man nor wait for the children of man.
⁸ And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep, which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
⁹ Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.
¹⁰ And in that day, declares the Lord,
I will cut off your horses from among you
and will destroy your chariots.
¹¹ And I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds.
¹² And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;
¹³ Your carved images I will also cut off,
and your pillars from among you;
and you shall bow down no more
to the work of your hands.
¹⁴ And I will root out your Asherah images from among you and destroy your cities.
¹⁵ And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury on the nations that did not obey.
⁶ Hear what the Lord says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.”
² “Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,
and you enduring foundations of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
³ “O my people, what have I done to you?
How have I wearied you? Answer me!
⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt
and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
⁵ “O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”
⁶ “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?”
⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
⁹ The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
“Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!
¹⁰ Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed?
¹¹ Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?
¹² Your rich men are full of violence;
your inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
¹³ Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins.
¹⁴ “You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
and there shall be hunger within you;
you shall put away, but not preserve,
and what you preserve I will give to the sword.”
¹⁵ You shall sow, but not reap;
you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.
¹⁶ For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels, that I may make you a desolation, and your inhabitants a hissing; so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”
¹ Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.
² The godly has perished from the earth,
and there is no one upright among mankind;
they all lie in wait for blood,
and each hunts the other with a net.
³ Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together.
⁴ The best of them is like a brier,
the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
now their confusion is at hand.
⁵ Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms;
⁶ For the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.
⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
⁸ Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
⁹ I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me out to the light; I shall look upon his vindication.
¹⁰ Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
¹¹ A day for the building of your walls! In that day the boundary shall be far extended.
¹² In that day they will come to you, from Assyria and the cities of Egypt, and from Egypt to the River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
¹³ But the earth will be desolate because of its inhabitants, for the fruit of their deeds.
¹⁴ Shepherd your people with your staff,
the flock of your inheritance,
who dwell alone in a forest
in the midst of a garden land;
let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
¹⁵ As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.
¹⁶ The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
their ears shall be deaf;
¹⁷ they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
like the crawling things of the earth;
they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
and they shall be in fear of you.
¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?
¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us;
he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
You will cast all our sins
into the depths of the sea.
²⁰ You will show faithfulness to Jacob
and steadfast love to Abraham,
as you have sworn to our fathers
from the days of old.

Nahum 1:1-3:19: ¹ The oracle of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
² The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
³ The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
⁴ He rebukes the sea and makes it dry; he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither; the bloom of Lebanon withers.
⁵ The mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.
⁶ Who can stand before his indignation?
⁷ The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
⁸ But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
⁹ What do you plot against the Lord? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time.
¹⁰ For they are like entangled thorns, like drunkards as they drink; they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
¹¹ From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord, a worthless counselor.
¹² Thus says the Lord: “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
¹³ And now I will break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds apart.”
¹⁴ And the Lord has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
¹⁵ Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off.
¹ The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.
² For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their branches.
³ The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.
⁴ The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
⁵ He remembers his officers; they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower is set up.
⁶ The river gates are opened;
the palace melts;
⁷ The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.
² The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
⁹ Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or wealth of all precious things.
¹⁰ She is empty, void, and waste; the heart melts, and the knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!
¹¹ The queen is stripped; she is carried off, her slave girls lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
¹² The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
¹³ Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
¹ Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey!
² The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
³ Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
⁴ all because of the multitude of the whoredom of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whoredom, and peoples with her charms.
⁵ Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.
⁶ I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.
⁷ And all who look at you will shrink from you and say, “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you?
⁸ Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
⁹ Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength;
Put and Libya were her helpers.
¹⁰ Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity; her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains.
¹¹ You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
¹² All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
¹³ Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.
¹⁴ Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold!
¹⁵ There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper!
¹⁶ You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens.
¹⁷ Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
¹⁸ Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.
¹⁹ There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?

Habakkuk 1:1-3:19: ¹ The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
² O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
³ Why do you make me see iniquity,
and why do you idly look at wrong?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
⁴ So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
⁵ “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”
⁶ For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
⁷ They are dreaded and fearsome;
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
⁸ Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
⁹ They all come for violence, all their faces forward, and they gather captives like sand.
¹⁰ At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh. They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.
¹¹ Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!
¹² Are you not from everlasting,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
We shall not die.
¹³ You who are of purer eyes than to see evil
and cannot look at wrong,
why do you idly look at traitors
and remain silent when the wicked swallows up
the man more righteous than he?
¹⁴ And make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
¹⁵ He brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net; he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his dragnet;
for by them he lives in luxury,
and his food is rich.
¹⁷ Is he then to keep on emptying his net
and mercilessly killing nations forever?
¹ I will take my stand at my watchpost
and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
² And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.
³ For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
⁴ “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
⁵ “Moreover, wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough; he gathers for himself all nations and collects as his own all peoples.”
⁶ Shall not all these take up their taunt against him, with scoffing and riddles for him, and say, “Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own— for how long?— and loads himself with pledges!”
⁷ Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble?
⁸ Because you have plundered many nations,
all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of man and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell in them.
⁹ Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!
¹⁰ You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life.
¹¹ For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.
¹² “Woe to him who builds a town with blood
and founds a city on iniquity!
¹³ Behold, is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?
¹⁴ For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
¹⁵ “Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink—
you pour out your wrath and make them drunk,
in order to gaze at their nakedness!
¹⁶ You will have your fill of shame instead of glory. Drink, yourself, and show your uncircumcision! The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and utter shame will come upon your glory!
¹⁷ The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.
¹⁸ “What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it,
a metal image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in his own creation
when he makes speechless idols!
¹⁹ Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
²⁰ But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.”
¹ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth:
² O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
³ God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
⁴ His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
⁵ Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
⁶ He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways.
⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
⁸ Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
⁹ You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah.
¹⁰ The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.
¹² You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger.
¹³ You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck.
¹⁴ You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.
¹⁶ I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

Zephaniah 1:1-3:20: ¹ The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
² “I will utterly sweep away everything
from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
³ “I will sweep away man and beast;
I will sweep away the birds of the heavens
and the fish of the sea,
and the rubble with the wicked.
I will cut off mankind
from the face of the earth,” declares the Lord.
⁴ “I will stretch out my hand against Judah
and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem;
and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal
and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests,”
⁵ those who bow down on the roofs
to the host of the heavens,
those who bow down and swear to the Lord
and yet swear by Milcom,
⁶ those who have turned back from following the Lord,
who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.”
⁷ Be silent before the Lord God! For the day of the Lord is near; the Lord has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests.
⁸ And on the day of the Lord’s sacrifice—
“I will punish the officials and the king’s sons
and all who array themselves in foreign attire.
⁹ On that day I will punish everyone who leaps over the threshold and those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud.
¹⁰ “On that day,” declares the Lord,
“a cry will be heard from the Fish Gate,
a wail from the Second Quarter,
a loud crash from the hills.
¹¹ Wail, O inhabitants of the Mortar! For all the traders are no more; all who weigh out silver are cut off.
¹² At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps,
and I will punish the men
who are complacent,
those who say in their hearts,
‘The Lord will not do good,
nor will he do ill.’
¹³ Their goods shall be plundered,
and their houses laid waste.
Though they build houses,
they shall not inhabit them;
though they plant vineyards,
they shall not drink wine from them.
¹⁴ The great day of the Lord is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the Lord is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there.
¹⁵ A day of wrath is that day,
a day of distress and anguish,
a day of ruin and devastation,
a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness,
¹⁶ a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
¹⁷ I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them
on the day of the wrath of the Lord.
Gather together, yes, gather, O shameless nation,
² before the decree takes effect— 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 Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord.
⁴ For Gaza 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 Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left.
⁶ And the seacoast shall be pastures, with meadows for shepherds and folds for flocks.
⁷ The seacoast shall become the possession
of the remnant 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 restore their fortunes.
⁸ “I have heard the taunts of Moab
and the revilings of the Ammonites,
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 like 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 pride, 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;
even the owl and the hedgehog
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 exultant city that lived securely, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is no one else.” What a desolation she has become, a lair for wild beasts! Everyone who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist.
¹ Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!
² She listens to no voice; she accepts 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 evening wolves
that leave nothing till the morning.
⁴ Her prophets are fickle, treacherous men;
her priests profane what is holy;
they do violence to the law.
⁵ The Lord within her is righteous;
he 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, without an inhabitant.”
⁷ I said, ‘Surely you will fear me; you will accept correction. Then your dwelling would not be cut off according to all that I have appointed against you.’ 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 pour out upon them my indignation, all my burning anger; for in the fire of my jealousy all the earth shall be consumed.”
⁹ “For at that time I 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 Cush, my worshipers, the daughter of my dispersed people, shall bring me an 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,
nor shall there be found in their mouth
a deceitful tongue.
For they shall graze and lie down,
and none shall make them afraid.”
¹⁴ Sing 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 in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.
¹⁶ On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: “Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak.
¹⁷ The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice 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.
¹⁹ Behold, at that time I will deal
with all your oppressors.
And I 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 restore your fortunes before your eyes,” says the Lord.

Haggai 1:1-2:23: ¹ In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua 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 paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
⁵ Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.
⁶ You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages 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 dew, 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.
¹² Then Zerubbabel 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, “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 sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
¹ 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 Zerubbabel 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? Is it not as nothing in your eyes?
⁴ Yet now be 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 I am with you, declares the Lord of hosts,
⁵ According to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
⁶ For thus says the Lord of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.
⁷ And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill 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.
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:
⁸ The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
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, “It does become unclean.”
¹⁴ Then Haggai answered, “So is this people, and so is this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so is every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean.
⁸ The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts.
¹⁶ how did you fare? When 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 blight and with mildew and with hail, yet 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 foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider:
¹⁹ Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you.”
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 shake the heavens and the earth,
²² And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will 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 my servant, the son of Shealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.

Zechariah 1:1-14:21: ¹ In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, 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: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts.
⁴ Be not like your fathers, to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not 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 overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”
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 red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.
⁶ But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for our ways and deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”
¹⁰ And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol 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 seventy 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: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.
¹⁵ And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster.
¹⁶ Therefore, thus says the Lord, ‘I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.’
¹⁷ Cry yet again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.
¹⁸ 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 Then 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.”
¹ And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand!
² And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”
³ And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him,
⁴ and said to him, “Run, speak to that young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it.
⁵ And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.
⁶ Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord.
⁷ Up! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.
⁸ For thus said the Lord of hosts, after his glory sent me to the nations who plundered you, for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye:
⁹ “For behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me.
¹⁰ Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.
¹¹ And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
¹² And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.
¹³ Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.
³ Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.
² And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”
³ Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments.
⁴ And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”
⁵ And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by.
⁶ And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua,
⁷ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here.”
⁸ Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign: behold, I will bring my servant the Branch.
⁹ For behold, on the stone that I have set before Joshua, on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.
¹⁰ In that day, declares the Lord of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.”
¹ And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep.
² And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it.
³ And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.”
⁴ Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
⁵ Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
⁶ Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
⁷ Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’”
⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.”
¹⁰ For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
⁴ Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?”
¹² And I said to him, “What are these two olive branches that are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?”
¹³ He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.”
¹⁴ Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
¹ Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll!
² And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits, and its width ten cubits.”
³ Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land. For everyone who steals shall be cleaned out according to what is on one side, and everyone who swears falsely shall be cleaned out according to what is on the other side.
⁴ I will send it out, declares the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter the house of the thief, and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. And it shall remain in his house and consume it, both timber and stones.
⁵ Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.”
⁶ And I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the basket that is going out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity in all the land.”
⁷ And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket!
⁸ And he said, “This is Wickedness.” And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening.
⁹ Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
¹⁰ Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?”
¹¹ And he said to me, “To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base.”
¹ I lifted up my eyes again and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze.
² The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses,
³ And in the third chariot white horses.
⁴ I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”
⁵ And the angel answered and said to me, “These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.
⁶ The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.”
⁷ And the strong horses came out and sought to go and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth.
⁸ Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.”
⁹ And the word of the Lord came to me:
¹⁰ “Take from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who have arrived from Babylon, and go the same day to the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah.”
¹¹ Take from them silver and gold, and make a crown, and set it on the head of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
¹² And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord.
¹³ It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”
¹⁴ “And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord as a reminder to Helem, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Hen the son of Zephaniah.”
¹⁵ “And those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the Lord. And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall come to pass, if you will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
³ saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
² Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men to entreat the favor of the Lord,
³ saying to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts and the prophets, “Should I weep and abstain in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
⁴ Then the word of the Lord of hosts came to me:
⁵ “Say to all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?
⁶ And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves?
⁷ Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord proclaimed through the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous, with her cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?”
⁸ And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying:
⁹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another,”
¹⁰ do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”
¹¹ But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear.
¹² They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts.
¹³ “As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear,” declares the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴ but I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and the pleasant land was made desolate.
¹ And the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying:
² “Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.”
³ Thus says the Lord: I have returned to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.
⁴ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of great age.
⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.
⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: If it is marvelous in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be marvelous in my sight, declares the Lord of hosts?
⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country.
⁸ and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.
⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets who were present on the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.
¹⁰ For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor.
¹¹ But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the Lord of hosts.
¹² For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
¹³ And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.”
¹⁴ For thus says the Lord of hosts: “As I purposed to bring disaster to you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the Lord of hosts,
¹⁵ so again have I purposed in these days to bring good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not.
¹⁶ These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;
¹⁷ do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.”
¹⁸ And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
¹⁹ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah seasons of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love truth and peace.”
²⁰ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities.
²¹ The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’
²² Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.
²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
² and on Hamath also, which borders on it, Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.
³ Tyre has built herself a rampart
and heaped up silver like dust,
and fine gold like the mud of the streets.
⁴ Behold, the Lord will strip her of her possessions and strike down her power on the sea, and she shall be devoured by fire.
⁵ Ashkelon shall see it, and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes are confounded. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;
⁶ a mixed people shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of Philistia.
⁷ I will take away its blood from its mouth,
and its abominations from between its teeth;
it too shall be a remnant for our God;
it shall be like a clan in Judah,
and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.
⁸ Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that none shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again march over them, for now I see with my own eyes.
⁹ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
¹⁰ I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall speak peace to the nations;
his rule shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
¹¹ As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
¹² Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.
¹³ For I have bent Judah as my bow;
I have made Ephraim its arrow.
I will stir up your sons, O Zion,
against your sons, O Greece,
and wield you like a warrior’s sword.
¹⁴ Then the Lord will appear over them, and his arrow will go forth like lightning; the Lord God will sound the trumpet and will march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.
¹⁵ The Lord of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour, and tread down the sling stones, and they shall drink and roar as if drunk with wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar.
¹⁶ On that day the Lord their God will save them, as the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.
¹⁷ For how great is his goodness, and how great his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.
¹ Ask rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, and he will give them showers of rain, to everyone the vegetation in the field.
² For the household gods utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd.
³ “My anger is hot against the shepherds,
and I will punish the leaders;
⁴ From him shall come the cornerstone,
from him the tent peg,
from him the battle bow,
from him every ruler—all of them together.
⁵ They shall be like mighty men in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight because the Lord is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses.
⁶ “I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them, for I am the Lord their God and I will answer them.”
⁷ Then Ephraim shall become like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and be glad; their hearts shall rejoice in the Lord.
⁸ I will whistle for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as many as they were before.
⁹ Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and with their children they shall live and return.
¹⁰ I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, till there is no room for them.
¹¹ He shall pass through the sea of troubles and strike down the waves of the sea, and all the depths of the Nile shall be dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.
¹² I will make them strong in the Lord, and they shall walk in his name,” declares the Lord.
¹ Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars!
² Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen,
for the glorious trees are ruined!
Wail, oaks of Bashan,
for the thick forest has been felled!
³ There is a sound of the shepherds’ wail, for their glory is ruined. The sound of the lions’ roar, for the thicket of the Jordan is ruined.
⁴ Thus said the Lord my God: “Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
⁵ Those who buy them slaughter them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
⁶ For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, declares the Lord. Behold, I will cause each of them to fall into the hand of his neighbor, and each into the hand of his king, and they shall crush the land, and I will deliver none from their hand.”
⁷ So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slaughtered by the sheep traders. And I took two staffs, one I named Favor, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.
⁸ In one month I destroyed the three shepherds. But I became impatient with them, and they also detested me.
⁹ Then I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die. What is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed. And let those who are left devour the flesh of one another.”
¹⁰ And I took my staff Favor, and I broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.
¹¹ So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep traders, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the Lord.
¹² Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver.
¹³ Then the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord, to the potter.
¹⁴ Then I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
¹⁵ Then the Lord said to me, “Take once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd.
¹⁶ For behold, I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for those being destroyed, or seek the young or heal the maimed or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
¹⁷ “Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!”
¹ The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:
² “Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also be against Judah.
³ On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
⁴ On that day, declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But for the sake of the house of Judah I will keep my eyes open, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
⁵ Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.’
⁶ “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot in the midst of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves. And they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.”
⁷ “And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah.
⁸ On that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, going before them.
⁹ And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”
¹¹ On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
¹² The land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves;
¹³ “On that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo.”
¹⁴ The families of the house of David separate themselves, and their wives separate themselves; the family of the house of Nathan separate themselves, and their wives separate themselves;
¹ “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”
² “And on that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness.”
³ And if anyone again prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ And his father and mother who bore him shall pierce him through when he prophesies.
⁴ “On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive,
⁵ But he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a worker of the soil, for a man sold me in my youth.’
⁶ And if one asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your back?’ he will say, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’
⁷ “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who stands next to me,”
declares the Lord of hosts.
“Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered;
I will turn my hand against the little ones.
⁸ In the whole land, declares the Lord, two thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left alive.
⁹ And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’
¹ Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst.
² For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
³ Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.
⁴ On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.
⁵ And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
⁶ On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost.
⁷ And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light.
⁸ On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea. It shall continue in summer as in winter.
⁹ And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
¹⁰ The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
¹¹ And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
¹² And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
¹³ And on that day a great panic from the Lord shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other.
¹⁴ And Judah also will fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.
¹⁵ And so shall be the plague on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey, and whatever beasts may be in those camps.
¹⁶ Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths.
¹⁷ And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them.
¹⁸ And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
¹⁹ And this shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.
²⁰ And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the Lord.” And the pots in the house of the Lord shall be as the bowls before the altar.
²¹ And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.

Malachi 1:1-4:6: ¹ The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi.
¹ “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob”
³ but Esau I have hated. I have laid waste his hill country and left his heritage to jackals of the desert.
⁴ If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the Lord of hosts says, “They may build, but I will tear down, and they will be called ‘the wicked country,’ and ‘the people with whom the Lord is angry forever.’”
⁵ A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? declares the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
⁶ “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? declares the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
⁷ By offering polluted food upon my altar. But you say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ By saying that the Lord’s table may be despised.
⁸ When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Offer that to your governor; will he accept you or show you favor? declares the Lord of hosts.
⁹ And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? Declares the Lord of hosts.
¹⁰ Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
¹¹ For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
¹² “But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and its fruit, that is, its food may be despised.”
¹³ But you say, ‘What a weariness this is,’ and you snort at it, says the Lord of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the Lord.
¹⁴ “But cursed be the deceiver who has in his flock a male, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.”
² “And now, O priests, this command is for you.”
² If you will not listen, if you will not take it to heart to give honor to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.
³ Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and you shall be taken away with it.
⁴ So shall you know that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may stand, says the Lord of hosts.
⁵ “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.”
⁶ True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.
⁷ For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
⁸ But you have turned aside from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts,
⁹ “Therefore I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show partiality in your instruction.”
¹⁰ Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers?
¹¹ Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
¹² May the Lord cut off from the tents of Jacob
any descendant of the man who does this,
who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts!
¹³ And this second thing you do. You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.
² Yet you say, “Why?” Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
² Did he not make them one, with a portion of the Spirit in their union? And what was the one God seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and let none of you be faithless to the wife of your youth.
¹⁶ “For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”
¹⁷ You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”
¹ “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
² But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.
⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.
⁵ “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”
⁶ “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
⁷ From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’
⁸ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.
⁹ You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.
¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.
¹² Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.
¹³ “Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’”
³ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?
¹⁵ And now we call the arrogant blessed. Evildoers not only prosper but they put God to the test and they escape.
¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke with one another. The Lord paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the Lord and esteemed his name.
¹⁷ “They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.”
¹⁸ Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.”
² But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
³ And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
⁴ “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.”
⁵ “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”
⁶ And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.