Study Desk

"You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of Hosts, "Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.

Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the eretz withholds its fruit.

I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground brings forth, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of the hands."

Yet now be strong, Zerubbavel,' says the LORD. 'Be strong, Yehoshua, son of Yehotzadak, the Kohen Gadol. Be strong, all you people of the land,' says the LORD, 'and work, for I am with you,' says the LORD of Hosts.

For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the eretz, the sea, and the dry land;

In that day, says the LORD of Hosts, will I take you, Zerubbavel, my servant, the son of She'alti'el,' says the LORD, 'and will make you as a signet, for I have chosen you,' says the LORD of Hosts."

So the angel who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of Hosts: "I am jealous for Yerushalayim and for Tziyon with a great jealousy.

I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity."

For I,' says the LORD, 'will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.

Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,' says the LORD; 'for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,' says the LORD.

For thus says the LORD of hosts: 'For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.

For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a spoil to those who served them; and you will know that the LORD of Hosts has sent me.

Sing and rejoice, daughter of Tziyon; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you,' says the LORD.

Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!"

Hear now, Yehoshua the Kohen Gadol, you and your fellows who sit before you; for they are men who are a sign: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant, the Branch.

For, behold, the stone that I have set before Yehoshua; on one stone are seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the engraving of it,' says the LORD of Hosts, 'and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbavel. These are the eyes of the LORD, which run back and forth through the whole eretz."

Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.

The crowns shall be to Helem, and to Toviyah, and to Yedayah, and to Hen the son of Tzefanyah, for a memorial in the temple of the LORD.

"Speak to all the people of the land, and to the Kohanim, saying, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me?