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DECEMBER 28
final stone of the building will be put into place, signifying its completion.“‘With shouts of “Grace,
grace to it!”’”This blessing signifying shouts of joy and thanksgiving came to pass (Ezra 3:11–13)
over the completion of the temple. Contrast this attitude with that of the people seeing the unfin-
ished temple (Hag. 2:3).

nations which they had not known. Thus the
December 28 land became desolate after them, so that no one
passed through or returned; for they made the
pleasant land desolate.”
Zechariah 7:1–9:17 Again the word of the LORD of hosts came,
2
8 saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Now in the fourth year of King Darius it
7 came to pass that the word of the LORD ‘I am zealous for Zion with great zeal;
came to Zechariah, on the fourth day of the With great fervor I am zealous for her.’
ninth month, Chislev, when the people sent 3 “Thus says the LORD:
2
Sherezer, with Regem-Melech and his men, to
the house of God, to pray before the LORD, and ‘I will return to Zion,
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to ask the priests who were in the house of the And dwell in the midst of Jerusalem.
LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, Jerusalem shall be called the City
“Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I of Truth,
have done for so many years?” The Mountain of the LORD of hosts,
4 Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to The Holy Mountain.’
5
me, saying, “Say to all the people of the land, 4 “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and ‘Old men and old women shall again sit
mourned in the fifth and seventh months dur- In the streets of Jerusalem,
ing those seventy years, did you really fast for Each one with his staff in his hand
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Me—for Me? When you eat and when you Because of great age.
drink, do you not eat and drink for yourselves? 5 The streets of the city
7 Should you not have obeyed the words which
the LORD proclaimed through the former Shall be full of boys and girls
Playing in its streets.’
prophets when Jerusalem and the cities
around it were inhabited and prosperous, and 6 “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
the South and the Lowland were inhabited?’ ” ‘If it is marvelous in the eyes of the
8 Then the word of the LORD came to remnant of this people in these days,
Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the LORD of Will it also be marvelous in My eyes?’
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hosts: Says the LORD of hosts.
‘Execute true justice, 7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
Show mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother. ‘Behold, I will save My people from the
10 Do not oppress the widow or the land of the east
fatherless, And from the land of the west;
8 I will bring them back,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart And they shall dwell in the midst
Against his brother.’ of Jerusalem.
They shall be My people
“But they refused to heed, shrugged their And I will be their God,
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shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they In truth and righteousness.’
could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts 9
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like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words “Thus says the LORD of hosts:
which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit ‘Let your hands be strong,
through the former prophets. Thus great wrath You who have been hearing in these
came from the LORD of hosts. Therefore it days
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happened, that just as He proclaimed and they These words by the mouth of the
would not hear, so they called out and I would prophets,
not listen,” says the LORD of hosts. “But I scat- Who spoke in the day the foundation
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tered them with a whirlwind among all the was laid
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