The Living Bible (291 page)

Zephaniah
2

Gather together and pray, you shameless nation,
²
 while there still is time—before judgment begins and your opportunity is blown away like chaff; before the fierce anger of the Lord falls and the terrible day of his wrath begins.
³
 Beg him to save you, all who are humble—all who have tried to obey.

    
Walk humbly and do what is right; perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you from his wrath in that day of doom.

    
⁴
 Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron—these Philistine cities, too, will be rooted out and left in desolation.
⁵
 And woe to you Philistines
*
living on the coast and in the land of Canaan, for the judgment is against you too. The Lord will destroy you until not one of you is left.
⁶
 The coastland will become a pasture, a place of shepherd camps and folds for sheep.

    
⁷
 There the little remnant of the tribe of Judah will be pastured. They will lie down to rest in the abandoned houses in Ashkelon. For the Lord God will visit his people in kindness and restore their prosperity again.

    
⁸
 “I have heard the taunts of the people of Moab and Ammon, mocking my people and invading their land.
⁹
 Therefore as I live,” says the Lord Almighty, God of Israel, “Moab and Ammon will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah and become a place of stinging nettles, salt pits, and eternal desolation; those of my people who are left will plunder and possess them.”

    
¹⁰
 They will receive the wages of their pride, for they have scoffed at the people of the Lord Almighty.
¹¹
 The Lord will do terrible things to them. He will starve out all those gods of foreign powers, and everyone shall worship him, each in his own land throughout the world.

    
¹²
 You Ethiopians, too, will be slain by his sword,
¹³
 and so will the lands of the north; he will destroy Assyria and make its great capital Nineveh a desolate wasteland like a wilderness.
¹⁴
 That once proud city will become a pastureland for sheep. All sorts of wild animals will have their homes in her. Hedgehogs will burrow there; the vultures and the owls will live among the ruins of her palaces, hooting from the gaping windows; the ravens will croak from her doors. All her cedar paneling will lie open to the wind and weather.

    
¹⁵
 This is the fate of that vast, prosperous city that lived in such security, that said to herself, “In all the world there is no city as great as I.” But now—see how she has become a place of utter ruins, a place for animals to live! Everyone passing that way will mock or shake his head in disbelief.
*

Zephaniah
3

Woe to filthy, sinful Jerusalem, city of violence and crime.
²
 In her pride she won’t listen even to the voice of God. No one can tell her anything; she refuses all correction. She does not trust the Lord nor seek for God.

    
³
 Her leaders are like roaring lions hunting for their victims—out for everything that they can get. Her judges are like ravenous wolves at evening time, who by dawn have left no trace of their prey.

    
⁴
 Her “prophets” are liars seeking their own gain; her priests defile the Temple by their disobedience to God’s laws.

    
⁵
 But the Lord is there within the city, and he does no wrong. Day by day his justice is more evident, but no one heeds—the wicked know no shame.

    
⁶
 “I have cut off many nations, laying them waste to their farthest borders; I have left their streets in silent ruin and their cities deserted without a single survivor to remember what happened.
⁷
 I thought, ‘Surely they will listen to me now—surely they will heed my warnings, so that I’ll not need to strike again.’ But no; however much I punish them, they continue all their evil ways from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn.”
⁸
 But the Lord says, “Be patient; the time is coming soon when I will stand up and accuse these evil nations. For it is my decision to gather together the kingdoms of the earth and pour out my fiercest anger and wrath upon them. All the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

    
⁹
 “At that time I will change the speech of my returning people to pure Hebrew
*
so that all can worship the Lord together.
¹⁰
 My scattered people who live in the Sudan,
*
beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, will come with their offerings, asking me to be their God again.
¹¹
 And then you will no longer need to be ashamed of yourselves, for you will no longer be rebels against me. I will remove all your proud and arrogant people from among you; there will be no pride or haughtiness on my holy mountain.
¹²
 Those who are left will be the poor and the humble, and they will trust in the name of the Lord.
¹³
 They will not be sinners, full of lies and deceit. They will live quietly, in peace, and lie down in safety, and no one will make them afraid.”

    
¹⁴
 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
¹⁵
 For the Lord will remove his hand of judgment and disperse the armies of your enemy. And the Lord himself, the King of Israel, will live among you! At last your troubles will be over—you need fear no more.

    
¹⁶
 On that day the announcement to Jerusalem will be, “Cheer up, don’t be afraid.
^17-18
 For the Lord your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty Savior. He will give you victory. He will rejoice over you with great gladness; he will love you and not accuse you.” Is that a joyous choir I hear? No, it is the Lord himself exulting over you in happy song.

    
“I have gathered your wounded and taken away your reproach.
¹⁹
 And I will deal severely with all who have oppressed you. I will save the weak and helpless ones, and bring together those who were chased away. I will give glory to my former exiles, mocked and shamed.

    
²⁰
 “At that time, I will gather you together and bring you home again, and give you a good name, a name of distinction among all the peoples of the earth, and they will praise you when I restore your fortunes before your very eyes,” says the Lord.

Haggai

1
 
2
 

Haggai
1

Subject: a message from the Lord.

    
To:
Haggai the prophet, who delivered it to Zerubbabel (son of Shealtiel), governor of Judah; and to Joshua (son of Josedech), the High Priest—for it was addressed to them.
*

    
When:
In late August of the second year of the reign of King Darius I.

    
²
 “Why is everyone saying it is not the right time for rebuilding my Temple?” asks the Lord.

    
^3-4
 His reply to them is this: “Is it then the right time for you to live in luxurious homes, when the Temple lies in ruins?
⁵
 Look at the result:
⁶
 You plant much but harvest little. You have scarcely enough to eat or drink and not enough clothes to keep you warm. Your income disappears, as though you were putting it into pockets filled with holes!

    
⁷
 “Think it over,” says the Lord Almighty. “Consider how you have acted and what has happened as a result!
⁸
 Then go up into the mountains, bring down timber, and rebuild my Temple, and I will be pleased with it and appear there in my glory,” says the Lord.

    
⁹
 “You hope for much but get so little. And when you bring it home, I blow it away—it doesn’t last at all. Why? Because my Temple lies in ruins, and you don’t care. Your only concern is your own fine homes.
¹⁰
 That is why I am holding back the rains from heaven and giving you such scant crops.
¹¹
 In fact, I have called for a drought upon the land, yes, and in the highlands too—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olives and all your other crops, a drought to starve both you and all your cattle and ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.”

    
¹²
 Then Zerubbabel (son of Shealtiel), the governor of Judah, and Joshua (son of Josedech), the High Priest, and the few people remaining in the land obeyed Haggai’s message from the Lord their God; they began to worship him in earnest.

    
¹³
 Then the Lord told them (again sending the message through Haggai, his messenger), “I am with you; I will bless you.”
^14-15
 And the Lord gave them a desire to rebuild his Temple; so they all gathered in early September of the second year of King Darius’s reign and volunteered their help.

Haggai
2

In early October of the same year, the Lord sent them this message through Haggai:

    
²
 “Ask this question of the governor and High Priest and everyone left in the land:

    
³
 “‘Who among you can remember the Temple as it was before? How glorious it was! In comparison, it is nothing now, is it?
⁴
 But take courage, O Zerubbabel and Joshua and all the people; take courage and work, for I am with you, says the Lord Almighty.
⁵
 For I promised when you left Egypt that my Spirit would remain among you; so don’t be afraid.’

    
⁶
 “For the Lord Almighty says, ‘In just a little while I will begin to shake the heavens and earth—and the oceans, too, and the dry land.
⁷
 I will shake all nations, and the Desire of All Nations
*
shall come to this Temple, and I will fill this place with my glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.
^8-9
 ‘The future splendor of this Temple will be greater than the splendor of the first one! For I have plenty of silver and gold to do it! And here I will give peace,’
*
says the Lord.”

    
¹⁰
 In early December, in the second year of the reign of King Darius, this message came from the Lord through Haggai the prophet:

    
¹¹
 “Ask the priests this question about the law:
¹²
 ‘If one of you is carrying a holy sacrifice in his robes and happens to brush against some bread or wine or meat, will it too become holy?’”

    
“No,” the priests replied. “Holiness does not pass to other things that way.”

    
¹³
 Then Haggai asked, “But if someone touches a dead person, and so becomes ceremonially impure, and then brushes against something, does it become contaminated?”

    
And the priests answered, “Yes.”

    
¹⁴
 Haggai then made his meaning clear. “You people,” he said (speaking for the Lord), “were contaminating your sacrifices by living with selfish attitudes and evil hearts—and not only your sacrifices, but everything else that you did as a ‘service’ to me.
¹⁵
 And so everything you did went wrong. But all is different now because you have begun to build the Temple.
^16-17
 Before, when you expected a twenty-bushel crop, there were only ten. When you came to draw fifty gallons from the olive press, there were only twenty. I rewarded all your labor with rust and mildew and hail. Yet, even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord.

    
^18-19
 “But now note this: From today, this 24th day of the month,
*
as the foundation of the Lord’s Temple is finished, and from this day onward, I will bless you. Notice, I am giving you this promise now before you have even begun to rebuild the Temple structure, and before you have harvested your grain, and before the grapes, the figs, the pomegranates, and olives have produced their next crops:
From this day I will bless you.”

    
²⁰
 Another message came to Haggai from the Lord that same day:

    
²¹
 “Tell Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, ‘I am about to shake the heavens and the earth,
²²
 to overthrow thrones, destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow their armed might, and brothers and companions will kill each other.
²³
 But when that happens, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, and honor you like a signet ring upon my finger; for I have specially chosen you,’ says the Lord Almighty.”