Study Desk

He said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with its bowl [for oil] on the top of it and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it.

"Who [with reason] despises the day of small things (beginnings)? For these seven [eyes] shall rejoice when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the LORD which roam throughout the earth."

Then he said to me, "This is the curse that is going out over the face of the whole land; for everyone who steals will be cut off according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears [oaths falsely] shall be cut off according to the writing on the other side.

And he said to me, "To the land of Shinar (Babylon) to build a temple for her; and when it is prepared, she shall be set there on her own pedestal."

"Then say to Joshua, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold (look, keep in sight, watch), a Man (Messiah) whose name is Branch, for He shall branch out from His place (Israel, the Davidic line); and He shall build the [ultimate] temple of the LORD.

"Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years [that you were in exile], was it actually for Me that you fasted?

'When you eat and when you drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves [to satisfy your own needs]?

"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."

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine], and I am jealous for her with great wrath [against her enemies].'

'For before those days there were no wages for man or animal; nor was there any peace or success for him who went out or came in because of his enemies, for I set all men against one another.

'For there the seed will produce peace and prosperity; the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will produce its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit and possess all these things.

"For thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Just as I planned to do harm to you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and I did not relent,

'And let none of you devise or even imagine evil in your heart against another, and do not love lying or half-truths; for all these things I hate,' declares the LORD."

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'The fast of the fourth [month to mourn the breaching of Jerusalem's walls], the fast of the fifth [month to mourn the temple's destruction], the fast of the seventh [month to mourn Gedaliah's assassination], and the fast of the tenth [month to mourn the siege of Jerusalem] will become times of joy and gladness and cheerful feasts for the house of Judah; so [to bring this about] love truth and peace.'

'So many peoples and powerful nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to ask the LORD for His favor.'

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men [as representatives] from all the nations will grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"

The oracle (a burdensome message) of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach [in Syria], with Damascus as its resting place (for the eyes of men, especially of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the LORD),

For Tyre built herself an [impregnable] stronghold [on an island offshore], And she has heaped up silver like dust And gold like the mire of the streets.

Ashkelon will see it and fear; Gaza will writhe in pain, And Ekron, for her hope and expectation, has been ruined. The king will perish from Gaza, And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

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.