Study Desk

The remnant of Israel will no longer do wrong or speak lies, nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. But they will feed and lie down, with no one to make them tremble."

You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through."

You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

But now take courage, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. And be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work! For I am with you, declares the LORD of Hosts.

from that time when one came expecting a heap of twenty ephahs of grain, there were but ten. When one came to the winepress to draw out fifty baths, there were but twenty.

I struck you-all the work of your hands-with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.

Is there still seed in the barn? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet yielded fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you."

Do not be like your forefathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.' But they did not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the LORD.

But did not My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your forefathers? They repented and said, 'Just as the LORD of Hosts purposed to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done to us.'"

but I am fiercely angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was a little angry, but they have increased the calamity.'

"What are these coming to do?" I asked. And He replied, "These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."

So 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.

For who has despised the day of small things? But these seven eyes of the LORD, which scan the whole earth, will rejoice when they see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand."

But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they stopped up their ears from hearing.

But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned a pleasant land into a desolation."

But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past," declares the LORD of Hosts.

But I will camp around My house because of an army, because of those who march to and fro, and never again will an oppressor overrun My people, for now I keep watch with My own eyes.

For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land," declares the LORD, "but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hand of his neighbor and of his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands."

Then I told them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver.

For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves.