Friday, March 12

7Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'Behold, I shall deliver My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west.

8I shall bring them in and settle them in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be to Me a people and I will be to them a God in truth and in righteousness.'

9'Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets, from the day that the house of the Lord Almighty was founded, and from the time the temple was built.

10For before those days, men's wages will not be profitable and a price for livestock will not even exist, and because of affliction there will be no peace for those going out and those coming in, and I will send forth all men, each against his neighbor.

11But now I do not do to the remnant of this people as in the former days,' says the Lord Almighty.

12'Rather I will show forth peace, for the vine shall give its fruit, the earth her produce, the heaven its dew, and I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people.

13And it shall come to pass that as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you will be for a blessing; be of good courage and strengthen your hands.'

14'For thus says the Lord Almighty: 'As I purposed to afflict you when your fathers provoked Me to anger,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and I did not relent,

15so now in these days I have prepared and purposed to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; be of good courage.

16These are the things you shall do: speak the truth, each man to his neighbor, and judge with peaceful judgment in your gates,

17and let none of you plan evil in his heart against his neighbor, and do not love a false oath, for all these things I hate,' says the Lord Almighty.'

19'Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'The fourth-month fast, and the fifth-month fast, and the seventh-month fast, and the tenth-month fast shall be for joy and gladness and in good feasts to the house of Judah. And you will rejoice, and you will love truth and peace.'

20Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'Yet many people will have come and those inhabiting many cities;

21and the inhabitants of five cities will come together to one city, saying, 'Let us go to beseech the Lord and to seek out the face of the Lord Almighty; and I will go also.'

22And many peoples and many nations will come to seek out the presence of the Lord Almighty in Jerusalem and to obtain the favor of the presence of the Lord.'

23Thus says the Lord Almighty, 'In those days, if ten men from all the tongues of the nations stop you, even if they grab hold of the hem of a Jewish man, they will be saying, 'We will go with you, for we heard God is with you.' ' '