But thou, O LORD my God, my holy one: thou art from the beginning, therefore shall we not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for punishment, and set them to reprove the mighty.

Your eyes are too pure to gaze upon evil; and you cannot tolerate wickedness. So why do you tolerate the treacherous? And why do you stay silent while the wicked devour those who are more righteous than they are?

I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

“Moreover, wine is treacherous and betrays the arrogant man,
So that he does not stay at home.
His appetite is large like Sheol,
And he is like death, never satisfied.
He gathers to himself all nations
And collects to himself all peoples [as if he owned them].

Shall not these all of them lift up a parable against him, and an enigma of an oracle against him, and it shall be said, Wo! to him multiplying that not to him. how long making heavy upon him goods taken in pledge?

Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to Shigionoth.

LORD, as I listen to what has been said about you, I am afraid. LORD, revive your work throughout all of our lives reveal yourself throughout all of our lives when you are angry, remember compassion.

And the brightness will be as the light; horns to him from his hand; and he set the hiding of his strength.

In nakedness thou shalt raise thy bow, the oaths of the tribes, he said. Silence. Thou wilt divide the earth with rivers.

Jehovah the Lord my strength, and he will set my feet as the hinds, and upon my heights he will cause me to tread. For the overseer upon my stringed instruments.

[Hush!] Be silent before the Lord God [there is no acceptable excuse to offer]!
For the day [of the vengeance] of the Lord is near,
For the Lord has prepared a sacrifice (Judah),
He has set apart [for His use] those who have accepted His invitation [the Chaldeans who rule Babylon].

My ears have been open to the bitter words of Moab and the words of shame of the children of Ammon, which they have said against my people, lifting themselves up against the limit of their land.

This will be their fate because of their pride, because they have said evil, lifting themselves up against the people of the Lord of armies.

And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and he will destroy Assur; and he will set Nineveh for a desolation, a dryness as the desert

The flocks and all the beasts of the people shall lie in the midst of it, pelicans and storks shall abide in the upper posts of it, fowls shall sing in the windows, and ravens shall sit upon the balks, for the borders of cedar shall be riven down.

This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.

I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings.

Yahweh, hath set aside, thy judgments, hath turned back thy foe, - The king of Israel, Yahweh, is in thy midst, thou shalt not fear calamity, any more.

In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.

The sad exiles from the appointed meeting, have I gathered, from thee, had they been! but were a burden on thee - a reproach!

Lo, I am dealing with all afflicting thee at that time, And I have saved the halting one, And the driven out ones I do gather, And have set them for a praise and for a name, In all the land of their shame.

At that time I bring you in, Even at the time of My assembling you, For I give you for a name, and for a praise, Among all peoples of the land, In My turning back to your captivity before your eyes, said Jehovah!

Thus spake Jehovah of Hosts, saying: This people! -- they have said, 'The time hath not come, The time the house of Jehovah is to be built.'

Then spake the LORD by the Prophet Haggai, and said,

And now, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Set your heart to your ways.

Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Set your heart to your ways.

Go up the mountain, and ye have brought in wood, And build the house, and I am pleased with it. And I am honoured, said Jehovah.

Then Haggai, whom the Lord had sent to give his words to the people, said, I am with you, says the Lord.

‘Who is left among you who saw this house (temple) in its former glory? And how do you see it now? Does it not seem to you like nothing in comparison?

For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Yet once more -- it is a little, And I am shaking the heavens and the earth, And the sea, and the dry land,

And I have shaken all the nations, And they have come to the desire of all the nations, And I have filled this house with honour, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

Greater is the honour of this latter house, Than of the former, said Jehovah of Hosts, And in this place do I give peace, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts.'

Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: 'Ask, I pray thee, the priests of the law, saying:

If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.

Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

And now, I ask you, set your heart on it; from this day and onward, before the placing of a stone on a stone in the temple of Jehovah;

Set it, I pray you, to your heart, from this day and onwards, from the twenty and fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the temple of Jehovah hath been founded, set it to your heart.

Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.

and overthrow the seat of the kingdoms, yea and destroy the mighty kingdom of the Heathen. I will overthrow the chariots, and those that sit upon then, so that both horse and man shall fall down, every man through his neighbour's sword.

In that day -- an affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I take thee, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And have set thee as a signet, for on thee I have fixed, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts!

And thou hast said unto them, Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, turn back unto Me, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I turn back unto you, said Jehovah of Hosts.

Ye shall not be as your fathers, To whom the former prophets called, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Turn back I pray you, From your evil ways and from your evil doings, And they did not hearken, Nor attend to Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah.

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (Feb 15, 519 b.c.), which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of [the reign of] Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, as follows:

"I saw by night, and lo, there sat one upon a red horse, and stood still among the Myrtle trees, that were beneath upon the ground: and behind him were there red, speckled and white horses.

Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.

And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.

Then the angel of the LORD answered and said, O LORD of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?

So the angel that communed with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

Therefore, thus said Jehovah: I have turned to Jerusalem with mercies, My house is built in it, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And a line is stretched over Jerusalem.

Again call, saying: Thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Again do my cities overflow from good, And Jehovah hath again comforted Zion, And He hath fixed again on Jerusalem.'

And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.

Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.

And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:

For I, saith the LORD, will be to her a wall of fire on every side, and will be the glory in the midst of her.

For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: After honour He hath sent me unto the nations who are spoiling you, For he who is coming against you, Is coming against the daughter of His eye.

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.

And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by.

And the angel of the Lord made a statement to Joshua, and said,

'Thus said Jehovah of Hosts: If in My ways thou dost walk, And if My charge thou dost keep, Then also thou dost judge My house, And also thou dost keep My courts, And I have given to thee conductors among these standing by.

Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at: for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH.

For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; upon one stone are seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.

On that day, each of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and fig tree.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:

And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.

And I answered and said to the angel [who was] talking to me, "What [are] these, my lord?"

Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

And he answereth and speaketh unto me, saying: 'This is a word of Jehovah unto Zerubbabel, saying: Not by a force, nor by power, But -- by My Spirit, said Jehovah of Hosts.

For who has had a poor opinion of the day of small things? for they will be glad when they see the weighted measuring-line in the hand of Zerubbabel. Then he said in answer to me, These seven lights are the eyes of the Lord which go quickly up and down through all the earth.

Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?

And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?

And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.

Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.

And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

I will send it out,”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—“and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name. It will stay inside his house and destroy it along with its timbers and stones.”

Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.

And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.

(and behold, a [round, flat] lead cover was lifted up); and there sat a woman inside the ephah.”

And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.

Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?

And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.

Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord?

And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.

And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth.

Then He called out to me and said to me, “See, those who are going to the north country have quieted My Spirit [of wrath] in the north country.”

Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest;

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.

Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

Are not these the words which the Lord said to you by the earlier prophets, when Jerusalem was full of people and wealth, and the towns round about her and the South and the Lowland were peopled?

This is what the Lord of armies has said: Let your judging be upright and done in good faith, let every man have mercy and pity for his brother:

And they made their hearts like the hardest stone, so that they might not give ear to the law and the words which the Lord of armies had said by the earlier prophets: and there came great wrath from the Lord of armies.

And it is come to pass that, as he cried, and they would not hear, so they shall cry, and I will not hear, said Jehovah of hosts;