Study Desk

"The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will complete it. Then you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me to you.

I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and its stones."

And you are to tell him that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Behold, a man whose name is the Branch, and He will branch out from His place and build the temple of the LORD.

Yes, He will build the temple of the LORD; He will be clothed in splendor and will sit on His throne and rule. There will also be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two of them.'

They made their hearts like flint and would not listen to the law and the words that the LORD of Hosts had sent by His Spirit through the earlier prophets. Therefore great anger came from the LORD of Hosts.

For before those days neither man nor beast received wages, nor was there safety from the enemy for anyone who came or went, for I had turned every man against his neighbor.

And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations; His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.

Then the LORD will appear over them, and His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will sound the trumpet and advance in the whirlwinds of the south.

On that day the LORD their God will save them as the flock of His people; for like jewels in a crown, they will sparkle over His land.

"My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders. For the LORD of Hosts attends to His flock, the house of Judah; He will make them like His royal steed in battle.

I will strengthen them in the LORD, and in His name they will walk," declares the LORD.

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."

Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!"

And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, 'You shall not remain alive, because you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD.' When he prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will pierce him through.

And on that day every prophet who prophesies will be ashamed of his vision, and he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive.

On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south.

On that day the LORD will become King over all the earth-the LORD alone, and His name alone.

but Esau I have hated, and I have made his mountains a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals."

"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?" says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. Yet you ask, "How have we despised Your name?"

"But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King," says the LORD of Hosts, "and My name is to be feared among the nations."