Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, but he will not answer them. He will hide his face from them at that time, because they have done such wicked deeds.”

When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame. They say to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” I will gloat over them. Then they will be trampled down like mud in the streets.

They will lick the dust like a snake, like serpents crawling on the ground. They will come trembling from their strongholds to the Lord our God; they will be terrified of you.

I am against you,” declares the Lord who commands armies. “I will strip off your clothes! I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms;

You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing. So why do you put up with such treacherous people? Why do you say nothing when the wicked devour those more righteous than they are?

She is disobedient; she refuses correction. She does not trust the Lord; she does not seek the advice of her God.

Know for sure that I will then enable the nations to give me acceptable praise. All of them will invoke the Lord’s name when they pray, and will worship him in unison.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius’ second year, the Lord spoke again to the prophet Haggai:

Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple.

I struck all the products of your labor with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,’ says the Lord.

In the eighth month of Darius’ second year, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah, son of Berechiah son of Iddo, as follows:

Then I asked one nearby, “What are these, sir?” The angelic messenger who replied to me said, “I will show you what these are.”

Turning to me, the messenger then said, “Cry out that the Lord who rules over all says, ‘I am very much moved for Jerusalem and for Zion.

I asked, “Where are you going?” He replied, “To measure Jerusalem in order to determine its width and its length.”

The Lord said to Satan, “May the Lord rebuke you, Satan! May the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Isn’t this man like a burning stick snatched from the fire?”

He replied, “Don’t you know what these are?” So I responded, “No, sir.”

“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple, and his hands will complete it.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Before he could reply I asked again, “What are these two extensions of the olive trees, which are emptying out the golden oil through the two golden pipes?”

Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

After this the angelic messenger who had been speaking to me went out and said, “Look, see what is leaving.”