But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers? Then they paid attention and confessed, 'The Lord who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.'"

And he said to him, "Run, say to that young man, 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited {like villages without walls} because of the multitude of people and animals in its midst.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In pursuit of glory I was sent to the nations who plundered you, because whoever injures you injures the pupil of my eye.

Hush, all flesh, because of Jehovah, For He hath been roused up from His holy habitation!'

"What are you, you great mountain? Because of Zerubbabel you will become a level plain! And he will bring forth the temple capstone with shoutings of 'Grace! Grace!' because of this."

Then said he unto me, This, is the curse, which is going forth over the face of all the earth, - Because, every one who stealeth, on the one side, hath in one way been let off, and, every one who sweareth, on the other side, hath in another way been let off,

with the chariot with the black horses going toward the north country; then the one with the white horses follows after them [because there are two northern powers to overcome], and the chariot with the dappled horses goes toward the south country.”

Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, When you went without food and gave yourselves to grief in the fifth and the seventh months for these seventy years, did you ever do it because of me?

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."

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'Old men and old women shall again sit in the public squares of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand {because of great age}.

Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, Because it will be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people, in those days, In mine own eyes also, shall it be marvellous? Demandeth Yahweh of hosts.

For before those days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; and there was no peace for him that went out or that came in, because of the distress: for I let loose all men, every one against his neighbour.

Because of the sowing of peace, The vine doth give her fruit, And the earth doth give her increase, And the heavens do give their dew, And I have caused the remnant of this people To inherit all these.

Do not devise evil in your hearts [against] your neighbor, and do not love {a false oath}, because all these [are] things I hate," {declares} Yahweh.

"This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "In the future, ten men speaking all the languages of the nations will grab hold of one Jewish person by the hem of his garment and say, "Let us go up to Jerusalem with you, because we heard that God is with you."'"

A declaration: this message from the LORD in the land of Hadrach, with Damascus its confederate, because the eyes of humanity will look to the LORD, along with those of all the tribes of Israel.

and also Hamath, which borders on it, Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise.

Ashkelon will see and will be afraid, and Gaza will writhe exceedingly, and Ekron [also], because its hope is ruined. And the king from Gaza will perish, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

And I will encamp about my house because of the army, because of those that pass by and that return; and the exactor shall not pass through them any more: for now have I seen it with mine eyes.

[As for] you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I will release your prisoners from {the waterless pit}.

The LORD their God will save them at that time as his very own flock of people, because they are his crown jewels, exalted throughout his land.

Because the household gods speak deceit, and those who practice divination see a lie, and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain. Therefore [the people] wander like sheep; they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

{My anger burns} against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders, because Yahweh of hosts watches over his flock, the house of Judah; and he will make them like his majestic horse in war.

And they will be like warriors, trampling in the mud of [the] streets in the battle. They will fight, because Yahweh [is] with them, and they will put to shame [the] riders on horses.

And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and the house of Joseph I will save. And I will bring them back, because I have compassion on them, and they will be as if I had not rejected them, for I [am] Yahweh their God, and I will answer them.

I will signal for them, and will gather them, because I have ransomed them, - and they shall multiply, according as they have multiplied;

Howl, cypress, for the cedar is fallen; because the noble ones are spoiled. Howl, ye oaks of Bashan; for the strong forest is come down.

Listen to the howling of shepherds, because their magnificence has been destroyed. Listen to the roaring of young lions, because the thickets of the Jordan have been devastated.

Those who buy them slaughter them but are not punished. Those who sell them say: Praise the Lord because I have become rich! Even their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

In a single month I got rid of three shepherds because I grew tired of them, and they despised me.

{And then}, if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!" And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

{And then} on that day, each of the prophets will be ashamed because of his vision when he was prophesying, and they will not put on a cloak of hair in order to deceive,

"He will say, "I am no mere prophet. A servant of mankind am I, because a man dedicated to this have I been from my youth.'

And one hath said unto him, 'What are these wounds in thy hands?' And he hath said, 'Because I was smitten at home by my lovers.'

And you will flee [by] the valley of my mountains, because the valley of [the] mountains will reach to Azal, and you will flee like you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. And Yahweh my God will come, [and] all [the] holy ones with him.

And, if the family of Egypt shall not come up, and shall not enter in, upon whom there falleth none, then shall smite them the plague wherewith Yahweh, did plague, the nations, because they came not up to celebrate the festival of booths.