Worship Begins Again

¹By the seventh month the people of Israel were all settled in their towns. Then they all assembled in Jerusalem,

²and Joshua son of Jehozadak, his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, together with his relatives, rebuilt the altar of the God of Israel, so that they could burn sacrifices on it according to the instructions written in the Law of Moses, the man of God.

³Even though the returning exiles were afraid of the people who were living in the land, they rebuilt the altar where it had stood before. Then they began once again to burn on it the regular morning and evening sacrifices.

⁴They celebrated the Festival of Shelters according to the regulations; each day they offered the sacrifices required for that day;

⁵and in addition they offered the regular sacrifices to be burned whole and those to be offered at the New Moon Festival and at all the other regular assemblies at which the Lord is worshiped, as well as all the offerings that were given to the Lord voluntarily.

⁶Although the people had not yet started to rebuild the Temple, they began on the first day of the seventh month to burn sacrifices to the Lord.

The Rebuilding of the Temple Begins

⁷The people gave money to pay the stonemasons and the carpenters and gave food, drink, and olive oil to be sent to the cities of Tyre and Sidon in exchange for cedar trees from Lebanon, which were to be brought by sea to Joppa. All this was done with the permission of Emperor Cyrus of Persia.

⁸So in the second month of the year after they came back to the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, they began work. Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of their people, the priests, and the Levites, in fact all the exiles who had come back to Jerusalem, joined in the work. All the Levites twenty years of age or older were put in charge of the work of rebuilding the Temple.

⁹The Levite Jeshua and his sons and relatives, and Kadmiel and his sons (the clan of Hodaviah) joined together in taking charge of the rebuilding of the Temple. (They were helped by the Levites of the clan of Henadad.)

¹⁰When the builders started to lay the foundation of the Temple, the priests in their robes took their places with trumpets in their hands, and the Levites of the clan of Asaph stood there with cymbals. They praised the Lord according to the instructions handed down from the time of King David.

¹¹They sang the Lord's praises, repeating the refrain: “The Lord is good, and his love for Israel is eternal.” Everyone shouted with all their might, praising the Lord, because the work on the foundation of the Temple had been started.

¹²Many of the older priests, Levites, and heads of clans had seen the first Temple, and as they watched the foundation of this Temple being laid, they cried and wailed. But the others who were there shouted for joy.

¹³No one could distinguish between the joyful shouts and the crying, because the noise they made was so loud that it could be heard for miles.

Opposition to the Rebuilding of the Temple

¹The enemies of the people of Judah and Benjamin heard that those who had returned from exile were rebuilding the Temple of the Lord, the God of Israel.

²So they went to see Zerubbabel and the heads of the clans and said, “Let us join you in building the Temple. We worship the same God you worship, and we have been offering sacrifices to him ever since Emperor Esarhaddon of Assyria sent us here to live.”

³Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the heads of the clans told them, “We don't need your help to build a temple for the Lord our God. We will build it ourselves, just as Emperor Cyrus of Persia commanded us.”

⁴Then the people who had been living in the land tried to discourage and frighten the Jews and keep them from building.

⁵They also bribed Persian government officials to work against them. They kept on doing this throughout the reign of Emperor Cyrus and into the reign of Emperor Darius.

Opposition to the Rebuilding of Jerusalem

⁶At the beginning of the reign of Emperor Xerxes, the enemies of the people living in Judah and Jerusalem brought written charges against them.

⁷Again in the reign of Emperor Artaxerxes of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and their associates wrote a letter to the emperor. The letter was written in Aramaic and was to be translated when read.

⁸Also Rehum, the governor, and Shimshai, the secretary of the province, wrote the following letter to Emperor Artaxerxes about Jerusalem:

⁹“From Rehum, the governor, from Shimshai, secretary of the province, from their associates, the judges, and from all the other officials, who are originally from Erech, Babylon, and Susa in the land of Elam,

¹⁰together with the other peoples whom the great and powerful Ashurbanipal moved from their homes and settled in the city of Samaria and elsewhere in West-of-Euphrates Province.”

¹¹This is the text of the letter: “To Emperor Artaxerxes from his servants who live in West-of-Euphrates.

¹²“We want Your Majesty to know that the Jews who came here from your other territories have settled in Jerusalem and are rebuilding that evil and rebellious city. They have begun to rebuild the walls and will soon finish them.

¹³Your Majesty, if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, the people will stop paying taxes, and your royal revenues will decrease.

¹⁴Now, because we are under obligation to Your Majesty, we do not want to see this happen, and so we suggest

¹⁵that you order a search to be made in the records your ancestors kept. If you do, you will discover that this city has always been rebellious and that from ancient times it has given trouble to kings and to rulers of provinces. Its people have always been hard to govern. This is why the city was destroyed.

¹⁶We therefore are convinced that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are completed, Your Majesty will no longer be able to control West-of-Euphrates Province.”

¹⁷The emperor sent this answer: “To Rehum, the governor, to Shimshai, secretary of the province, and to their associates who live in Samaria and in the rest of West-of-Euphrates, greetings.

¹⁸“The letter which you sent has been translated and read to me.

¹⁹I gave orders for an investigation to be made, and it has indeed been found that from ancient times Jerusalem has revolted against royal authority and that it has been full of rebels and troublemakers.

²⁰Powerful kings have reigned there and have ruled over the entire province of West-of-Euphrates, collecting taxes and revenue.

²¹Therefore you are to issue orders that those men are to stop rebuilding the city until I give further commands.

²²Do this at once, so that no more harm may be done to my interests.”

²³As soon as this letter from Emperor Artaxerxes was read to Rehum, Shimshai, and their associates, they hurried to Jerusalem and forced the Jews to stop rebuilding the city.

Work on the Temple Begins Again

²⁴Work on the Temple had been stopped and had remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of Emperor Darius of Persia.

The Lord Calls His People to Return to Him

¹In the eighth month of the second year that Darius was emperor of Persia, the Lord gave this message to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah and grandson of Iddo.

²The Lord Almighty told Zechariah to say to the people, “I, the Lord, was very angry with your ancestors,

³but now I say to you, ‘Return to me, and I will return to you.

⁴Do not be like your ancestors. Long ago the prophets gave them my message, telling them not to live evil, sinful lives any longer. But they would not listen to me or obey me.

⁵Your ancestors and those prophets are no longer alive.

⁶Through my servants the prophets I gave your ancestors commands and warnings, but they disregarded them and suffered the consequences. Then they repented and acknowledged that I, the Lord Almighty, had punished them as they deserved and as I had determined to do.’”

The Prophet's Vision of the Horses

⁷In the second year that Darius was emperor, on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat), the Lord gave me a message in a vision at night.

⁸I saw someone riding a red horse. He had stopped among some myrtle trees in a valley, and behind him were other horses—red, dappled, and white.

⁹I asked him, “Sir, what do these horses mean?” He answered, “I will show you what they mean.

¹⁰The Lord sent them to go and inspect the earth.”

¹¹They reported to the angel: “We have been all over the world and have found that the whole world lies helpless and subdued.”

¹²Then the angel said, “Almighty Lord, you have been angry with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah for seventy years now. How much longer will it be before you show them mercy?”

¹³The Lord answered the angel with comforting words,

¹⁴and the angel told me to proclaim what the Lord Almighty had said: “I have a deep love and concern for Jerusalem, my holy city,

¹⁵and I am very angry with the nations that enjoy quiet and peace. For while I was holding back my anger against my people, those nations made the sufferings of my people worse.

¹⁶So I have come back to Jerusalem to show mercy to the city. My Temple will be restored, and the city will be rebuilt.”

¹⁷The angel also told me to proclaim: “The Lord Almighty says that his cities will be prosperous again and that he will once again help Jerusalem and claim the city as his own.”

The Vision of the Horns

¹⁸In another vision I saw four ox horns.

¹⁹I asked the angel that had been speaking to me, “What do these horns mean?” He answered, “They stand for the world powers that have scattered the people of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”

²⁰Then the Lord showed me four workers with hammers.

²¹I asked, “What have they come to do?” He answered, “They have come to terrify and overthrow the nations that completely crushed the land of Judah and scattered its people.”

The Vision of the Measuring Line

¹In another vision I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.

²“Where are you going?” I asked. “To measure Jerusalem,” he answered, “to see how long and how wide it is.”

³Then I saw the angel who had been speaking to me step forward, and another angel came to meet him.

⁴The first one said to the other, “Run and tell that young man with the measuring line that there are going to be so many people and so much livestock in Jerusalem that it will be too big to have walls.

⁵The Lord has promised that he himself will be a wall of fire around the city to protect it and that he will live there in all his glory.”

The Exiles Are Called to Come Home

^6-7The Lord said to his people, “I scattered you in all directions. But now, you exiles, escape from Babylonia and return to Jerusalem.

⁸Anyone who strikes you strikes what is most precious to me.” So the Lord Almighty sent me with this message for the nations that had plundered his people:

⁹“The Lord himself will fight against you, and you will be plundered by the people who were once your servants.” When this happens, everyone will know that the Lord Almighty sent me.

¹⁰The Lord said, “Sing for joy, people of Jerusalem! I am coming to live among you!”

¹¹At that time many nations will come to the Lord and become his people. He will live among you, and you will know that he has sent me to you.

¹²Once again Judah will be the special possession of the Lord in his sacred land, and Jerusalem will be the city he loves most of all.

¹³Be silent, everyone, in the presence of the Lord, for he is coming from his holy dwelling place.

The Prophet's Vision of the High Priest

¹In another vision the Lord showed me the High Priest Joshua standing before the angel of the Lord. And there beside Joshua stood Satan, ready to bring an accusation against him.

²The angel of the Lord said to Satan, “May the Lord condemn you, Satan! May the Lord, who loves Jerusalem, condemn you. This man is like a stick snatched from the fire.”

³Joshua was standing there, wearing filthy clothes.

⁴The angel said to his heavenly attendants, “Take away the filthy clothes this man is wearing.” Then he said to Joshua, “I have taken away your sin and will give you new clothes to wear.”

⁵He commanded the attendants to put a clean turban on Joshua's head. They did so, and then they put the new clothes on him while the angel of the Lord stood there.

⁶Then the angel told Joshua that

⁷the Lord Almighty had said: “If you obey my laws and perform the duties I have assigned you, then you will continue to be in charge of my Temple and its courts, and I will hear your prayers, just as I hear the prayers of the angels who are in my presence.

⁸Listen then, Joshua, you who are the High Priest; and listen, you fellow priests of his, you that are the sign of a good future: I will reveal my servant, who is called The Branch!

⁹I am placing in front of Joshua a single stone with seven facets. I will engrave an inscription on it, and in a single day I will take away the sin of this land.

¹⁰When that day comes, each of you will invite your neighbor to come and enjoy peace and security, surrounded by your vineyards and fig trees.”

⁴A farmer too lazy to plow his fields at the right time will have nothing to harvest.

⁵A person's thoughts are like water in a deep well, but someone with insight can draw them out.

⁶Everyone talks about how loyal and faithful he is, but just try to find someone who really is!

⁷Children are fortunate if they have a father who is honest and does what is right.