Study Desk

"As for your ancestors, where are they? And did the prophets live forever?

The angel of the Lord then asked, " Lord who rules over all, how long before you have compassion on Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah which you have been so angry with for these seventy years?"

Turning to me, the messenger then said, "Cry out that the Lord who rules over all says, ‘I am very much moved for Jerusalem and for Zion.

But I am greatly displeased with the nations that take my grace for granted. I was a little displeased with them, but they have only made things worse for themselves.

"You there! Flee from the northland!" says the Lord , "for like the four winds of heaven I have scattered you," says the Lord .

For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory he has sent me to the nations that plundered you—for anyone who touches you touches the pupil of his eye.

"Sing out and be happy, Zion my daughter! For look, I have come; I will settle in your midst," says the Lord .

Be silent in the Lord 's presence, all people everywhere, for he is being moved to action in his holy dwelling place.

As for the stone I have set before Joshua—on the one stone there are seven eyes. I am about to engrave an inscription on it,' says the Lord who rules over all, ‘to the effect that I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day.

For who dares make light of small beginnings? These seven eyes will joyfully look on the tin tablet in Zerubbabel's hand. (These are the eyes of the Lord , which constantly range across the whole earth.)

The speaker went on to say, "This is a curse traveling across the whole earth. For example, according to the curse whoever steals will be removed from the community; or on the other hand (according to the curse) whoever swears falsely will suffer the same fate."

I asked, "What is it?" And he replied, "It is a basket for measuring grain that is moving away from here." Moreover, he said, "This is their ‘eye' throughout all the earth."

He replied, "To build a temple for her in the land of Babylonia. When it is finished, she will be placed there in her own residence."

"Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me—for me, indeed?

And now when you eat and drink, are you not doing so for yourselves?'"

‘Rather, I will sweep them away in a storm into all the nations they are not familiar with.' Thus the land had become desolate because of them, with no one crossing through or returning, for they had made the fruitful land a waste."

"The Lord who rules over all says, ‘I am very much concerned for Zion; indeed, I am so concerned for her that my rage will fall on those who hurt her.'

Before that time there was no compensation for man or animal, nor was there any relief from adversity for those who came and went, because I had pitted everybody—each one—against everyone else.

‘for there will be a peaceful time of sowing, the vine will produce its fruit and the ground its yield, and the skies will rain down dew. Then I will allow the remnant of my people to possess all these things.

"For the Lord who rules over all says, ‘As I had planned to hurt you when your fathers made me angry,' says the Lord who rules over all, ‘and I was not sorry,