Study Desk

And so, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.

Why do you cry out so loudly? Why are you suffering like a woman in labor? Is it because you have no king, and your counselors are dead?

So the Lord will abandon his people to their enemies until the woman who is to give birth has her son. Then those Israelites who are in exile will be reunited with their own people.

So I have already begun your ruin and destruction because of your sins.

This will happen because you have followed the evil practices of King Omri and of his son, King Ahab. You have continued their policies, and so I will bring you to ruin, and everyone will despise you. People everywhere will treat you with contempt."

They are all experts at doing evil. Officials and judges ask for bribes. The influential people tell them what they want, and so they scheme together.

We have sinned against the Lord , so now we must endure his anger for a while. But in the end he will defend us and right the wrongs that have been done to us. He will bring us out to the light; we will live to see him save us.

The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.

Lord , from the very beginning you are God. You are my God, holy and eternal. Lord , my God and protector, you have chosen the Babylonians and made them strong so that they can punish us.

But how can you stand these treacherous, evil men? Your eyes are too holy to look at evil, and you cannot stand the sight of people doing wrong. So why are you silent while they destroy people who are more righteous than they are?

The Lord gave me this answer: "Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance.

The day is near when the Lord will sit in judgment; so be silent in his presence. The Lord is preparing to sacrifice his people and has invited enemies to plunder Judah.

That is what will happen to the city that is so proud of its own power and thinks it is safe. Its people think that their city is the greatest in the world. What a desolate place it will become, a place where wild animals will rest! Everyone who passes by will shrink back in horror.

When you came out of Egypt, I promised that I would always be with you. I am still with you, so do not be afraid.

Then Haggai said, "The Lord says that the same thing applies to the people of this nation and to everything they produce; and so everything they offer on the altar is defiled."

So I have come back to Jerusalem to show mercy to the city. My Temple will be restored, and the city will be rebuilt."

The first one said to the other, "Run and tell that young man with the measuring line that there are going to be so many people and so much livestock in Jerusalem that it will be too big to have walls.

Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me." So the Lord Almighty sent me with this message for the nations that had plundered his people:

He commanded the attendants to put a clean turban on Joshua's head. They did so, and then they put the new clothes on him while the angel of the Lord stood there.

He said, "Zerubbabel has laid the foundation of the Temple, and he will finish the building. When this happens, my people will know that it is I who sent you to them. They are disappointed because so little progress is being made. But they will see Zerubbabel continuing to build the Temple, and they will be glad."