They covet fields and seize [them], and houses, and they take [them] away. They oppress a man and his house; a man and his inheritance.

In that day they will raise a proverb against you, and will wail a bitter wailing, saying, "We are utterly ruined; he exchanges [the] portion of my people. How he removes [it] from me; he apportions our field to an apostate."

"Do not preach!" they are preaching. They should not preach to these; disgrace will not overtake us.

I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely gather together the remainder of Israel. I will set them like sheep of Bozrah. Like a herd in the midst of their pasture they will be in tumult from people.

The one who breaks out before them goes up; they break through and pass the gate, going out through it. Their king passes before them, Yahweh at their head.

Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, when they have made their deeds evil.

Thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who are leading my people astray, who are biting with their teeth and proclaim, "Peace," but whoever puts nothing into their mouths they declare war against.

Its rulers judge for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money. But they lean on Yahweh, saying, "[Is] not Yahweh in our midst? Disaster will not come upon us."

And he will judge between many peoples and will arbitrate for strong nations far away; and they will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up a sword against a nation, and they will no longer learn war.

But they will sit, each under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken.

But they do not know the thoughts of Yahweh, and they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to his threshing floor.

Now muster troops, O daughter of troops; a siege he puts against us. They strike the ruler of Israel with a rod on the cheek.

And he will stand and shepherd [his flock] in the strength of Yahweh, in the majesty of the name of Yahweh his God. And they will live, for now he will be great unto the ends of the earth.

And they will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its entrances. And he will rescue [us] from the Assyrian when he comes into our land, and when they tread upon our border.

Their hands [are] upon evil, to do [it] well; the official and the judge ask for the bribe, and the great [man] utters the evil desire of his soul; and they weave [it] together.

The nations will see and be ashamed because of all their might. They will lay [the] hand on [the] mouth; their ears will be deaf.

They will lick the dust like the serpent, like the crawling things of the earth. They will come trembling from their strongholds to Yahweh our God. Let them fear and be afraid of you.

For like entangled thorns, and like their drink which is drunk, they will be consumed like fully dry chaff.

Yahweh says this: "Even though [they are] powerful and likewise many, even so they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no longer.

The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush back and forth in the public squares. Their appearance like lightning bolts, they dart about like flashes of lightning.

He calls his officers; they stumble as they march; they rush to her wall; they set the covering in place.

{Her goddess is taken out and taken into exile}; her maidservants moan like doves; they beat on their breasts.

Nineveh [is] like a pool of water without its water. {As they flee}, [she cries,] "Stop! Stop!" But there is no one who turns back.

Chariots charge! Swords flash! Spears glitter! {Many corpses are piled high}! There is no end to the slain! They stumble over their dead!

"And it will be that everyone who sees you will flee from you, And {they} will say, 'Nineveh is destroyed!' Who will mourn for her? From whence shall I seek comforters for you?"

Yet she went into captivity as an exile; her children were dashed to pieces at the head of [the] streets; they cast lots for all of her nobles; all of her dignitaries were bound with chains.

All of your fortifications [are like] fig trees with [ripe] firstfruits-- if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater.

You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; [like] the locust they will shed [their skin] and fly away.

Your officials [are] like locusts; your commanders [are] like a swarm of locusts. They encamp on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they fly away-- no one knows where they have gone.

They [are] dreadful and awesome; their justice and their dignity proceed from themselves.

Their horses [are] more swift than leopards; they are more menacing than wolves [at] dusk. Their horsemen gallop; their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle [that is] swift to devour.

All of them come for violence, their faces pressing forward. They gather captives like the sand.

And they themselves scoff at kings and rulers [are] a joke to them. They laugh at every fortification, and they heap up earth and take it.

Then they sweep [like the] wind and pass on; they become guilty, whose might [is] their god!"

[When the] mountains saw you they writhed; a torrent of waters swept by; the deep gave its voice; it raised its hands on high.

Sun [and] moon stood still in [their] place; at the light of your arrows they moved about; at the gleam of the flashing of your spear.

You pierced the head of his warriors with his own arrows; they came like a whirlwind to scatter me, their exultation like [one who] devours the afflicted in ambush.

Then their wealth shall be as plunder, and their homes as desolation. And they shall build their houses and not inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards and not drink their wine."

And I will bring distress to all humankind, and they shall walk about like the blind, for they sinned against Yahweh; their blood shall be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung.

For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon as a desolation. [As for] Ashdod, at noon they will drive her away, and Ekron shall be uprooted.

And it shall become a region for the remnant of the house of Judah; upon them they shall graze, and in the houses of Ashkelon they shall lie down in the evening. For Yahweh their God shall be mindful of them, and he will restore their fortunes.

I have heard the reproaches of Moab and the scorning of the {Ammonites}, [with] which they have taunted my nation and made boasts against their territory.

This [shall be] for them in place of their pride because they mocked and boasted against the people of Yahweh of hosts.

You also, O Cushites, they shall be killed by my sword.

Her officials in her midst [are] roaring lions; her judges [are] evening wolves; they leave nothing until the morning.

Her prophets [are] arrogant men of treachery; her priests have defiled [that which is] holy; they do violence to [the] law.

I have said, 'Surely she will fear me; she will accept discipline. Then her dwelling place will not be cut down, [nor] all that I have brought upon her.' Surely they rise early; they make all their deeds corrupt.

And I will leave in your midst a people afflicted and poor, and they shall take refuge in the name of Yahweh.

The remnant of Israel shall not do wickedness; they shall not speak deception, nor shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth. For they shall graze and lie down, and none shall frighten [them]."

I will gather those of you grieving on account of the feast; they were raising against her a reproach.

And Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and did [the] work on the house of Yahweh of hosts, their God,

And Haggai answered and said, " 'So [it is with] this people, and [with] this nation before me,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and so [it is with] every kind of work of their hands; and what they offer there [is] unclean.

"Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "Return from your evil ways and your evil deeds!" ' But they did not hear and they did not pay attention to me," {declares} Yahweh.

"Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?

However, did not my words and my regulations which I commanded my servants the prophets overtake your ancestors? And they repented and said, 'Yahweh of hosts planned to do with us according to our ways, and according to our deeds so he has dealt with us.'" '"

And they answered the angel of Yahweh who was standing between the myrtle shrubs, and they said, "We have patrolled the earth, and look, all the earth {is dwelling in peace}."

And {I am extremely angry} with the nations that are at ease, for [while] I was a little angry, they {furthered disaster}."

"Yes, look! I [am] going to wave my hand against them, and they will become plunder for their servants, and you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me.

"Many nations will join themselves to Yahweh on that day, and they will be my people, and I will dwell in your midst. And you will know that Yahweh of hosts has sent me to you.

And I said, "Let them put a clean headband on his head." And they put a clean headband on his head, and they clothed him [with] garments. And the angel of Yahweh [was] standing [by].

And I {looked up} and saw, and look!--two women coming forward, and [the] wind [was] in their wings, and they had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky.

And I asked the angel who was talking to me, "Where [are] they taking the basket?"

When the strong [horses] went out, they were anxious to go to patrol the earth. And he said, "Go, patrol the earth." And they patrolled the earth.

But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder and {stopped their ears from listening}.

{They made their hearts adamant} in order not to hear the law and the words that Yahweh of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets; [therefore] great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.

'Thus, just as I called and they would not hear, so they will call and I will not hear,' says Yahweh of hosts.

'And I scattered them with a wind among all the nations that they had not known; the land was made desolate behind them-- no one crossing through [it] or returning--and they made the desirable land a desolation.'"

and I will bring them and they will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They will be my people and I will be their God in faithfulness and in righteousness.'

and also Hamath, [which] borders on it; Tyre and Sidon--yes, they are very wise!

Yahweh of hosts will defend them, and they will devour and subdue the slingstones; they will drink, they will make noise like wine, and they will be full like the sacrificial basin, [drenched] like the corners of an altar.

And Yahweh their God will save them on that day, as the flock of his people; for [they are like] the stones of a diadem, glittering on 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.

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 whistle to them and gather them, for I have redeemed them, and they will become numerous as they have been numerous [before].

Though I sow them among the nations, in the distant places they will remember me, and they will stay alive with their children, and they will return.

I will make them strong in Yahweh, and in his name they will walk, {declares} Yahweh.

For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land," {declares} Yahweh. "Look, I [am] going to cause humankind to fall, each into the hand of his neighbor, and into the hand of his king; and they will devastate the land, and I will not deliver [anyone] from their hand."

And I got rid of three shepherds in one month, for {I grew impatient} with them, and {they also became tired of me}.

And I said to them, "If {it seems right to you}, give [me] my wages, but if not, {keep them}." And they weighed out my wages, thirty silver [shekels].

" 'On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a pan of fire among [sticks of] wood, and like a torch of fire among stalks of grain, and they will devour to [the] right and to [the] left all the surrounding peoples, and Jerusalem will be inhabited again [in] its place, in Jerusalem.

" 'I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as [one] grieves bitterly over a firstborn.

{And then}, on that day,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness I will banish from the land.

{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,

And I will bring the [remaining] third into the fire, and I will refine them like [one] refines silver, and I will test them like [one] tests gold. They will call my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people,' and they will say, 'Yahweh [is] my God.'"

I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, and they will loot the houses, and the women will be raped; half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city.

And they will dwell in it, and {there will be no more ban imposed}, and Jerusalem will dwell in security.

And this will be the plague [with] which Yahweh will strike all the peoples that fight against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they [are] standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.

{And then} on that day a great panic from Yahweh will fall on them, and {they will seize one another's hand}, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of {another}.

If Edom says, "We are shattered, but we will return and rebuild [the] ruins," Yahweh of hosts says this: "They may build, but I will tear down; and they will be called a territory of wickedness, and the people [with] whom Yahweh is angry forever."

For the lips of [the] priest should guard knowledge, and they should seek instruction from his mouth, for he [is] the messenger of Yahweh of hosts.

He will sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the children of Levi, and he will refine them like gold and like silver, and they will present to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.

And now we [are] calling [the] arrogant blessed! Not only do those who do wickedness prosper; they also test God and they escape!'"

"They will be mine," says Yahweh of hosts, "on the day that I [am] acting, [my] treasured possession. I will have compassion on them as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

You will trample down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I [am] going to act," says Yahweh of hosts.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ occurred in this way. His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, [but] before they came together, she was found {to be pregnant} by the Holy Spirit.

"Behold, the virgin {will become pregnant} and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet,

[After] they listened to the king, they went out, and behold, the star which they had seen at its rising led them until it came [and] stood above [the place] where the child was.

Now [when they] saw the star, they rejoiced [with] very great joy.