Day 268 of 364

^1:1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, ^1:2“This is what the LORD of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for the LORD’s house to be built.’” ^1:3Then the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ^1:4“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste? ^1:5Now therefore this is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Consider your ways. ^1:6You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t 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.’ ^1:7“This is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Consider your ways. ^1:8Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says the LORD. ^1:9“You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. ^1:10Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. ^1:11I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.” ^1:12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the LORD their God’s voice, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the LORD. ^1:13Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says the LORD. ^1:14The LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of Armies, their God, ^1:15in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. ^2:1In the seventh month, in the twenty-first day of the month, the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ^2:2“Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, saying, ^2:3‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Isn’t it in your eyes as nothing? ^2:4Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the LORD, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says the LORD of Armies. ^2:5This is the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit lived among you. ‘Don’t be afraid.’ ^2:6For this is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Yet once more, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land; ^2:7and I will shake all nations. The treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Armies. ^2:8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the LORD of Armies. ^2:9‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the LORD of Armies; ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ says the LORD of Armies.” ^2:10In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying, ^2:11“The LORD of Armies says: Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying, ^2:12‘If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with his fold touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any food, will it become holy?’” The priests answered, “No.” ^2:13Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” The priests answered, “It will be unclean.” ^2:14Then Haggai answered, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before me,’ says the LORD; ‘and so is every work of their hands. That which they offer there is unclean. ^2:15Now, please consider from this day and backward, before a stone was laid on a stone in the LORD’s temple. ^2:16Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty, there were only twenty. ^2:17I struck you with blight, mildew, and hail in all the work of your hands; yet you didn’t turn to me,’ says the LORD. ^2:18‘Consider, please, from this day and backward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider it. ^2:19Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven’t produced. From today I will bless you.’” ^2:20The LORD’s word came the second time to Haggai in the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, ^2:21“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth. ^2:22I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. ^2:23In that day, says the LORD of Armies, I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says the LORD, ‘and will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ says the LORD of Armies.”

^1:1In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, ^1:2“The LORD was very displeased with your fathers. ^1:3Therefore tell them, the LORD of Armies says: ‘Return to me,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD of Armies. ^1:4Don’t you be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: The LORD of Armies says, ‘Return now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;’ but they didn’t hear nor listen to me, says the LORD. ^1:5Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? ^1:6But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, didn’t they overtake your fathers? “Then they repented and said, ‘Just as the LORD of Armies determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.’” ^1:7On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the LORD’s word came to the prophet Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, ^1:8“I had a vision in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses. ^1:9Then I asked, ‘My lord, what are these?’” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what these are.” ^1:10The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, “They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth.” ^1:11They reported to the LORD’s angel 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.” ^1:12Then the LORD’s angel replied, “O LORD of Armies, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?” ^1:13The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. ^1:14So the angel who talked with me said to me, “Proclaim, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. ^1:15I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, but they added to the calamity.” ^1:16Therefore the LORD says: “I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it,” says the LORD of Armies, “and a line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.”’ ^1:17“Proclaim further, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies says: “My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem.”’” ^1:18I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns. ^1:19I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” He answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ^1:20The LORD showed me four craftsmen. ^1:21Then 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 that lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.” ^2:1I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. ^2:2Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” ^2:3Behold, the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him, ^2:4and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. ^2:5For I,’ says the LORD, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the middle of her. ^2:6Come! 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. ^2:7‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’ ^2:8For the LORD of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. ^2:9For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a plunder to those who served them; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me. ^2:10Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion! For behold, I come and I will dwell within you,’ says the LORD. ^2:11Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell among you, and you shall know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you. ^2:12The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. ^2:13Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!” ^3:1He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the LORD’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. ^3:2The LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Yes, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?” ^3:3Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the angel. ^3:4He answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, “Take the filthy garments off him.” To him he said, “Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich clothing.” ^3:5I said, “Let them set a clean turban on his head.” So they set a clean turban on his head, and clothed him; and the LORD’s angel was standing by. ^3:6The LORD’s angel solemnly assured Joshua, saying, ^3:7“The LORD of Armies says: ‘If you will walk in my ways, and if you will follow my instructions, then you also shall judge my house, and shall also keep my courts, and I will give you a place of access among these who stand by. ^3:8Hear now, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign; for, behold, I will bring out my servant, the Branch. ^3:9For, behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua: on one stone are seven eyes; behold, I will engrave its inscription,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ^3:10In that day,’ says the LORD of Armies, ‘you will invite every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’”