But my words and my orders, which I gave to my servants the prophets, have they not overtaken your fathers? and turning back they said, As it was the purpose of the Lord of armies to do to us, in reward for our ways and our doings, so has he done.

Then I said, O my lord, what are these? And the angel who was talking to me said to me, I will make clear to you what they are.

And the man who was between the mountains, answering me, said, These are those whom the Lord has sent to go up and down through the earth.

And the man who was between the mountains, answering, said to the angel of the Lord, We have gone up and down through the earth, and all the earth is quiet and at rest.

And the Lord gave an answer in good and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me.

And the angel who was talking to me said to me, Let your voice be loud and say, These are the words of the Lord of armies: I am greatly moved about the fate of Jerusalem and of Zion.

And I am very angry with the nations who are living untroubled: for when I was only a little angry, they made the evil worse.

And I said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have sent Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem in flight.

And the angel who was talking to me went out, and another angel went out, and, meeting him,

Now Joshua was clothed in unclean robes, and he was in his place before the angel.

And the angel who was talking to me came again, awaking me as a man out of his sleep.

And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord?

Then the angel who was talking to me, answering me, said, Have you no knowledge of what these are? And I said, No, my lord.

And the angel who was talking to me went out and said to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah which is going out.

And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman was seated in the middle of the ephah.

And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up between earth and heaven.

And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where are they taking the ephah?

And I made answer and said to the angel who was talking to me, What are these, my lord?

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?

But with a storm-wind I sent them in flight among all the nations of whom they had no knowledge. So the land was waste after them, so that no man went through or came back: for they had made waste the desired land.

For before those days there was no payment for a man's work, or for the use of a beast, and there was no peace for him who went out or him who came in, because of the attacker: for I had every man turned against his neighbour.

But now I will not be to the rest of this people as I was in the past, says the Lord of armies.

For this is what the Lord of armies has said: As it was my purpose to do evil to you when your fathers made me angry, says the Lord of armies, and my purpose was not changed:

And in one month I put an end to the three keepers of the flock; for my soul was tired of them, and their souls were disgusted with me.

And it was broken on that day: and the sheep-traders, who were watching me, were certain that it was the word of the Lord.

And the Lord said to me, Put it into the store-house, the price at which I was valued by them. And I took the thirty shekels of silver and put them into the store-house in the house of the Lord.

And I will send down on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayer; and their eyes will be turned to the one who was wounded by their hands: and they will be weeping for him as for an only son, and their grief for him will be bitter, like the grief of one sorrowing for his oldest son.

But he will say, I am no prophet, but a worker on the land; for I have been an owner of land from the time when I was young.

And if anyone says to him, What are these wounds between your hands? then he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.