Once again this message from the LORD come to me:

And the people of one town go to another and say, Let us certainly go with a request for grace from the Lord, and to give worship to the Lord of armies, then I will go with you.

And great peoples and strong nations will come to give worship to the Lord of armies in Jerusalem and to make requests for grace from the Lord.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: 'In those days ten men from {all the nations of every language} will take hold of the hem of a Judean man, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have 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.

For Tyre built herself an [impregnable] stronghold [on an island offshore],
And she has heaped up silver like dust
And gold like the mire of the streets.

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.

I will remove its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth. And it too will be a remnant for our God; and it will be like a tribal chief in Judah, and Ekron [will be] like [the] Jebusite.

And so will I compass my house round about with my men of war going to and fro: that no oppressor come upon them any more. For that have I seen now with mine eyes.

And I will cut off [the] chariot from Ephraim, and [the] horse from Jerusalem; the battle bow will be cut down, and he will announce peace to the nations. His dominion [will be] from sea to sea, and from [the] River to [the] ends of [the] earth.

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

Return to the stronghold, you prisoners, with hope; today I declare that I will return double what was taken from you.

Jehovah of hosts will defend them; and they shall devour, and shall tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as from wine; and they shall be filled like a bowl, like the corners of the altar.

Ask rain from Yahweh in the season of [the] spring rain-- Yahweh, who makes storm clouds, and he gives showers of rain to them, to everyone vegetation in the field.

From them [the] cornerstone will go out, from them [the] tent peg, from them [the] battle bow, from them every ruler, [all] together.

“Ephraim will be like a mighty man,
And their heart will be glad as if from wine;
Indeed, their children will see it and be glad,
Their heart will rejoice in the Lord.

And I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and from Assyria I will gather them. To the land of Gilead and Lebanon I will bring them, until no [room] will be found for them [there].

And I will make them mighty in Yahweh, and, in his name, shall they march to and fro, - Declareth Yahweh.

whose buyers slay them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them nor protect them [from the wolves].

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."

It was broken at that time so the oppressed of the flock who were observing me would know that it had been a message from the LORD.

A curse on the foolish keeper who goes away from the flock! the sword will be on his arm and on his right eye: his arm will become quite dry and his eye will be made completely dark.

A declaration: a message from the LORD to Israel. "The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who frames the spirit of man within himself, declares,

At that time, a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for those who live in Jerusalem so they can be cleansed from sin and ceremonial impurity.

" 'On that day a well will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, {to cleanse them from sin and from impurity}.

{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 he shall say, I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for man acquired me as bondman from my youth.

Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you.

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.

On that day his feet will stand on {the Mount of Olives}, which faces Jerusalem on [the] east; and {the Mount of Olives} will be split {in half}, from east to west, [by] a very great valley; and half of the mountain will withdraw toward the north, and the other half toward the south.

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 then} on that day, living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, and the other half to the western sea; it will happen [both] in the summer and in the winter.

All the land will be transformed into a desert plateau from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But it will rise up high and it will stay in its place from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of [the] former gate, up to the Corner Gate and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's winepresses.

{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}.

{And then} every survivor from all those nations coming against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship [the] king, Yahweh of hosts, and celebrate the Feast of Booths.

And it shall be, whoever will not come up from all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, Jehovah of Hosts, even on them shall be no rain.

If the people of Egypt do not come to Jerusalem to take part, they will have no annual Nile overflow. A plague will come from the LORD to strike the nations who do not come to observe the Festival of Tents.

And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to Yahweh of hosts, and all those who sacrifice will come and will take from them, and will cook in them, and there will be no longer a {trader} in the house of Yahweh of hosts on that day.

A declaration: a message from the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

And now, appease, I pray thee, the face of God, And He doth favour us; From your own hand hath this been, Doth He accept of you appearances? Said Jehovah of Hosts.

"Who also among you will shut [the temple] doors [so that] you will not kindle fire in vain [on] my altar? I take no pleasure in you," says Yahweh of hosts, "and {I will not accept} an offering from your hand.

From the rising of the sun to its setting, my name [is] great among the nations, and in every place incense [is] being presented to my name, and a pure offering. For my name [is] great among the nations," says Yahweh of hosts.

And you say, 'Look! [This is] a weariness,' and you sniff [with disdain] at it," says Yahweh of hosts. "And you bring [the] stolen, the lame, and the one that is sick--[this] you bring as the offering! Should I {accept it} from your hand?" says Yahweh.

See, I will have your arm cut off, and will put waste on your faces, even the waste from your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.

My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I will give them to him fearing, and he shall fear me, and from the face of my name he was terrified.

[The] instruction of truth was in his mouth, and wickedness was not found on his lips. In peace and in uprightness he walked with me, and he brought back many from sin.

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.

But you, you have turned from the way; you have caused many to stumble by [your] instruction; you have ruined the covenant of Levi," says Yahweh of hosts.

May Yahweh cut off from the tents of Jacob the man who does this, [the] one who is awake and [who] answers, and [the one who] brings an offering to Yahweh of hosts!

And this you do {as well}: [you] cover the altar of Yahweh [with] tears, [with] weeping and [with] groaning, because he {no longer regards the offering} or accepts [it] [with] favor from your hand.

No one who has even a small portion of the Spirit in him does this. What did our ancestor do when seeking a child from God? Be attentive, then, to your own spirit, for one should not be disloyal to the wife he took in his youth.

He will take his seat, testing and cleaning the sons of Levi, burning away the evil from them as from gold and silver; so that they may make offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hired servant in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.

From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my rules, and have not kept [them]! Return to me and I will return to you," says Yahweh of hosts, "but you say, 'How shall we return?'

Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings.

You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation.

And on your account I will keep back the locusts from wasting the fruits of your land; and the fruit of your vine will not be dropped on the field before its time, says the Lord of armies

You have said, It is no use worshipping God: what profit have we had from keeping his orders, and going in clothing of sorrow before the Lord of armies?

Then you will again see how the upright man is different from the sinner, and the servant of God from him who is not.

So shall the sun of righteousness, arise to you who revere my Name, with healing in his wings, - and ye shall come forth and leap for joy like calves let loose from the stall;

The ancestry of Jesus Christ, who was descended from David, who was descended from Abraham.

and Judah begot Perez and Zerah from Tamar, and Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram,

and Salmon begot Boaz from Rahab, and Boaz begot Obed from Ruth, and Obed begot Jesse,

and Jesse begot David the king. And David begot Solomon from the widow of Uriah,

and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David [are] fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon [are] fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ [are] fourteen generations.

And of Jesus Christ, the birth was thus: For his mother Mary having been betrothed to Joseph, before their coming together she was found to have conceived from the Holy Spirit,

But Joseph her husband, being a kind-hearted man and unwilling publicly to disgrace her, had determined to release her privately from the betrothal.

But [as] he was considering these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary [as] your wife, for what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

And she will give birth to a son, and you will call his name 'Jesus,' because he will save his people from their sins."

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken from the Lord by the prophet, saying,

And Joseph, [when he] woke up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and he took his wife

Now [after] Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,

and [after] calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired from them where the Christ was to be born.

'And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you will go out a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'"

Then Herod secretly summoned the wise men [and] determined precisely from them the time [when] the star appeared.

And they came into the house, and saw the young child with Mary, his mother; and falling down on their faces they gave him worship; and from their store they gave him offerings of gold, perfume, and spices.

And when they had gone, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream, saying, Get up and take the young child and his mother, and go into Egypt, and do not go from there till I give you word; for Herod will be searching for the young child to put him to death.

And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken from the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

Then Herod, [when he] saw that he had been deceived by the wise men, became very angry, and he sent [soldiers] [and] executed all the children in Bethlehem and in all the region [around] it from [the age of] two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined precisely from the wise men.

Then when Herod was dead, an angel from the Lord appeared in a [supernatural] dream to Joseph [while he was still] in Egypt, saying,

"Rise from sleep, and take the child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead."

Saying, Let your hearts be turned from sin; for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Now John himself had his clothing made from camel's hair and a belt made of leather around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Then Jerusalem and all Judaea went out to him, and all the people from near Jordan;

But [when he] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

And do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham [as] father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones!

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John in order to be baptized by him.

But John would have kept him back, saying, It is I who have need of baptism from you, and do you come to me?

Now [after he] was baptized, Jesus immediately went up from the water, and behold, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove coming upon him.

And behold, [there was] a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."

There He fasted for forty days and nights; and after that He suffered from hunger.

But he answering said, 'It hath been written, Not upon bread alone doth man live, but upon every word coming forth from the mouth of God.'

Then the Devil took Him to the top of an exceedingly lofty mountain, from which he caused Him to see all the Kingdoms of the world and their splendour,

Then Jesus replied to him, "Get away from me Satan, for it is written [Deut. 6:13], 'You are supposed to worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.'"

Then the Evil One went away from him, and angels came and took care of him.

And going away from Nazareth, he came and made his living-place in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the country of Zebulun and Naphtali:

From that time [on], Jesus began to preach and to say, "Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near."

And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the [son] of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.