Study Desk

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 [on the altar] is unclean [because they who offer it are unclean].

Is the seed still in the barn? As to the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree—they have not produced. Yet from this day on I will bless you [in the harvest of your crops].'"

"Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Repent [that is, change your way of thinking] and return now from your evil way [of life] and from your evil deeds."' But they did not listen or pay attention to Me," declares the LORD.

"Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

"But did not My words (warnings) and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said, 'As the LORD of hosts planned to do to us [in discipline and punishment], in accordance with our ways and our deeds, so has He dealt with us.'"'"

"But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease and feel secure; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster [against the people of Israel]."

"Behold, I will wave my hand over them and they shall become plunder for their own slaves. Then you shall know (recognize, understand fully) that the LORD of hosts has sent Me.

And I (Zechariah) said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with [rich] garments. And the Angel of the LORD stood by.

'Now listen, Joshua, the high priest, you and your colleagues who are sitting in front of you—indeed they are men who are a symbol [of what is to come]—for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch [in Messianic glory].

Then I looked up, and there were two women coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.

When the strong horses went out, they were eager to patrol the earth. And the LORD said, "Go, patrol the earth." So they patrolled the earth [watching and protecting it].

"Take an offering from the exiles, from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from Jedaiah [as representatives]; and you go the same day and enter the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have arrived from Babylon.

"But they refused to listen and pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder [stiffening themselves in resistance] and stopped up their ears.

"They made their hearts [hard] like flint, so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

"And just as He called and they would not listen, so they called and I would not listen," says the LORD of hosts;

"but I scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after they had gone, so that no one passed through or returned, for they [by their sins] had made the pleasant land desolate and deserted."

and I will bring them home and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth (faithfulness) and in righteousness.'

And Hamath also, which borders on it (Damascus), Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.

I will take the blood from their mouths And their detestable things from between their teeth [those repulsive, idolatrous sacrifices eaten with the blood]. Then they too will be a remnant for our God, And be like a clan in Judah, And Ekron will be like one of the Jebusites.

The LORD of hosts shall defend and protect them; And they will devour [the enemy] and trample down the slingstones [that have missed their mark], And they will drink [of victory] and be boisterous as with wine; And they shall be filled like sacrificial bowls [used to catch the blood], Drenched like the corners of the [sacrificial] altar.