All the men of your alliance have brought you on your way, even to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you. There is no understanding in him."

For the day of the LORD is near all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. Your deeds will return upon your own head.

For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.

Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said to him, "What is this that you have done?" For the men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.

Therefore they cried to the LORD, and said, "We beg you, LORD, we beg you, let us not perish for this man's life, and do not lay on us innocent blood; for you, LORD, have done as it pleased you."

I said, 'I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains. The earth barred me in forever: yet have you brought up my life from the pit, LORD my God.

But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD."

The LORD said, "You have been concerned for the vine, for which you have not labored, neither made it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night.

Do not tell it in Gath. Do not weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.

Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you.

Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the assembly of the LORD.

But lately my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle.

"In that day," says the LORD, "I will assemble that which is lame, and I will gather that which is driven away, and that which I have afflicted;

Now many nations have assembled against you, that say, "Let her be defiled, and let our eye gloat over Zion."

I will destroy witchcraft from your hand; and you shall have no soothsayers.

Listen now to what the LORD says: "Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.

My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me.

Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound. I have made you desolate because of your sins.

I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my case, and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light. I will see his righteousness.

He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot; and you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.

Thus says the LORD: "Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

For the LORD restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their vine branches.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.

Aren't you from everlasting, LORD my God, my Holy One? We will not die. LORD, you have appointed him for judgment. You, Rock, have established him to punish.

You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,

and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples will plunder you, because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all who dwell in it.

You have devised shame to your house, by cutting off many peoples, and have sinned against your soul.

"What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols?

LORD, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Renew your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.

those who have turned back from following the LORD, and those who haven't sought the LORD nor inquired after him.

I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.

Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who have kept his ordinances. Seek righteousness. Seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger.

I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the insults of the children of Ammon, with which they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border.

This they will have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.

Her prophets are arrogant and treacherous people. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law.

I have cut off nations. Their battlements are desolate. I have made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.

I said, "Just fear me. Receive correction, so that her dwelling won't be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her." But they rose early and corrupted all their doings.

In that day you will not be disappointed for all your doings, in which you have transgressed against me; for then I will take away out of the midst of you your proudly exulting ones, and you will no more be haughty in my holy mountain.

You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you aren't filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it."

Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven't brought forth. From this day will I bless you.'"

In that day, says the LORD of hosts, will I take you, Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel,' says the LORD, 'and will make you as a signet, for I have chosen you,' says the LORD of hosts."

They reported to the angel of the LORD who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace."

Then the angel of the LORD replied, "O LORD of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?"

Therefore thus says the LORD: "I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it," says the LORD of hosts, "and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem."'

I asked the angel who talked with me, "What are these?" He answered me, "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."

Then I asked, "What are these coming to do?" He said, "These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it."

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.

He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, "Take the filthy garments off of him." To him he said, "Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing."

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

He said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I have seen, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are on the top of it;

"The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.

Then he called to me, and spoke to me, saying, "Behold, those who go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country."

"Take of them of the captivity, even of Heldai, of Tobijah, and of Jedaiah; and come the same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah, where they have come from Babylon.

and to speak to the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, "Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?"

"but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned: for they made the pleasant land desolate."

Thus says the LORD: "I have returned to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called 'The City of Truth;' and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, 'The Holy Mountain.'"

so again have I thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not be afraid.

Thus says the LORD of hosts: "In those days, ten men will take hold, out of all the languages of the nations, they will take hold of the skirt of him who is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'"

I will encamp around my house against the army, that none pass through or return; and no oppressor will pass through them any more: for now I have seen with my eyes.

As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.

For indeed I bend Judah as a bow for me. I have filled the bow with Ephraim; and I will stir up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and will make you like the sword of a mighty man.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd.

"I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back; for I have mercy on them; and they will be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them.

I will signal for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them; and they will increase as they have increased.

I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.'

This will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth.

"I have loved you," says the LORD. Yet you say, "How have you loved us?" "Wasn't Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD, "Yet I loved Jacob;

"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says the LORD of hosts to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, 'How have we despised your name?'

You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, 'How have we polluted you?' In that you say, 'The LORD's table contemptible.'

"Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain. I have no pleasure in you," says the LORD of hosts, "neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

You say also, 'Behold, what a weariness it is.' and you have sniffed at it," says the LORD of hosts; "and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?" says the LORD.

If you will not listen, and if you will not lay it to heart, to give glory to my name," says the LORD of hosts, "then will I send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not lay it to heart.

You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

But you have turned aside out of the way. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts.

"Therefore I have also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law.

Do we not all have one father? Hasn't one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers?

Yet you say, 'Why?' Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.

You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, 'How have we wearied him?' In that you say, 'Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them;' or 'Where is the God of justice?'

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my ordinances, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD of hosts. "But you say, 'How shall we return?'

Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you say, 'How have we robbed you?' In tithes and offerings.

"Your words have been stout against me," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'What have we spoken against you?'

You have said, 'It is vain to serve God;' and 'What profit is it that we have followed his instructions, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

"Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him."

And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, "Go and search diligently for the young child, and when you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him."

and do not think to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father,' for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

But John would have hindered him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?"

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

"You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, 'You shall not murder;' and 'Whoever shall murder shall be in danger of the judgment.'

Truly I tell you, you shall by no means get out of there, until you have paid the last penny.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery;'

"Again you have heard that it was said to them of old time, 'You shall not make false vows, but shall perform to the Lord your vows,'

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'

And if anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.'

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?