Study Desk

"I will gather those among you who grieve over the appointed feasts, so that you will no longer suffer reproach.

Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the LORD.

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.

So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God,

So Haggai asked, "If one who is defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?" "Yes, it becomes defiled," the priests answered.

Then Haggai replied: "So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, declares the LORD, and so is every work of their hands; and whatever they offer there is defiled.

So tell the people that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Return to Me,' declares the LORD of Hosts, 'and I will return to you,' says the LORD of Hosts.

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.'"

So the LORD spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me.

So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, "What are these?" And he told me, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

"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."

I will surely wave My hand over them, so that they will become plunder for their own servants. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent Me."

So the Angel of the LORD said to those standing before Him, "Take off his filthy clothes!" Then He said to Joshua, "See, I have removed your iniquity, and I will clothe you with splendid robes."

Then I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So a clean turban was placed on his head, and they clothed him, as the Angel of the LORD stood by.

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.

So he said, "These are the two anointed ones who are standing beside the Lord of all the earth."

So I inquired of the angel who was speaking with me, "What are these, my lord?"

As the strong horses went out, they were eager to go and patrol the earth; and the LORD said, "Go, patrol the earth." So they patrolled the earth.

And when you were eating and drinking, were you not doing so simply for yourselves?

Therefore just as I had called and they would not listen, so when they called I would not listen, says the LORD of Hosts.