Study Desk

Woe to the inhabitants of the seacoast, The nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, Canaan, land of the Philistines; And I will eliminate you So that there will be no inhabitant.

"For then I will restore to the peoples pure lips, So that all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.

And I said, "What are these coming to do?" And he said, "These are the horns that have scattered Judah so that no one lifts up his head; but these craftsmen have come to frighten them, to throw down the horns of the nations who have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah in order to scatter it."

"For behold, I am going to wave My hand over them so that they will be plunder for their slaves. Then you will know that the LORD of armies has sent Me.

"They also made their hearts as hard as a diamond so that they could not hear the Law and the words which the LORD of armies had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of armies.

"but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they did not know. So the land was desolated behind them so that no one went back and forth, since they made the pleasant land desolate."

"The LORD of armies says this: 'Let your hands be strong, you who are listening in these days to these words from the mouth of the prophets, those who spoke in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of armies was laid, so that the temple might be built.

"And they will pass through the sea of distress And He will strike the waves in the sea, So that all the depths of the Nile will dry up; And the pride of Assyria will be brought down, And the scepter of Egypt will depart.

Open your doors, Lebanon, So that a fire may feed on your cedars.

"The LORD also will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not be greater than Judah.

"And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and of pleading, so that they will look at Me whom they pierced; and they will mourn for Him, like one mourning for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

"But now, do indeed plead for God's favor, so that He will be gracious to us. With such an offering on your part, will He receive any of you kindly?" says the LORD of armies.

"If only there were one among you who would shut the gates, so that you would not kindle fire on My altar for nothing! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD of armies, "nor will I accept an offering from your hand.

"Then you will know that I have sent this commandment to you, so that My covenant may continue with Levi," says the LORD of armies.

"And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.

"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and put Me to the test now in this," says the LORD of armies, "if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

"Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruit of your ground; nor will the vine in the field prove fruitless to you," says the LORD of armies.

"For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze," says the LORD of armies, "so that it will leave them neither root nor branches.

"He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction."

Now all this took place so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: