Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹And again I looked up and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains — mountains of bronze.

²The first chariot had red horses, the second chariot black horses,

³the third chariot white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled gray horses.

⁴Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵The angel answered me, “These are the four winds of heaven going out, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.

⁶The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go toward the west country, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.”

⁷When the steeds came out, they were impatient to get off and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth.

⁸Then he cried out to me, “Lo, those who go toward the north country have set my spirit at rest in the north country.”

⁹The word of the LORD came to me:

¹⁰Collect silver and gold from the exiles — from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah — who have arrived from Babylon; and go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.

¹¹Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak;

¹²say to him: Thus says the LORD of hosts: Here is a man whose name is Branch: for he shall branch out in his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD.

¹³It is he that shall build the temple of the LORD; he shall bear royal honor, and shall sit upon his throne and rule. There shall be a priest by his throne, with peaceful understanding between the two of them.

¹⁴And the crown shall be in the care of Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah, and Josiah son of Zephaniah, as a memorial in the temple of the LORD.

¹⁵Those who are far off shall come and help to build the temple of the LORD; and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. This will happen if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God.

¹In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.

²Now the people of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regem-melech and their men, to entreat the favor of the LORD,

³and to ask the priests of the house of the LORD of hosts and the prophets, “Should I mourn and practice abstinence in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”

⁴Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me:

⁵Say to all the people of the land and the priests: When you fasted and lamented in the fifth month and in the seventh, for these seventy years, was it for me that you fasted?

⁶And when you eat and when you drink, do you not eat and drink only for yourselves?

⁷Were not these the words that the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, along with the towns around it, and when the Negeb and the Shephelah were inhabited?

⁸The word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying:

⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another;

¹⁰do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.

¹¹But they refused to listen, and turned a stubborn shoulder, and stopped their ears in order not to hear.

¹²They made their hearts adamant in order not to hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.

¹³Just as, when I called, they would not hear, so, when they called, I would not hear, says the LORD of hosts,

¹⁴and I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known. Thus the land they left was desolate, so that no one went to and fro, and a pleasant land was made desolate.

¹The word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying:

²Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath.

³Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts shall be called the holy mountain.

⁴Thus says the LORD of hosts: Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with staff in hand because of their great age.

⁵And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

⁶Thus says the LORD of hosts: Even though it seems impossible to the remnant of this people in these days, should it also seem impossible to me, says the LORD of hosts?

⁷Thus says the LORD of hosts: I will save my people from the east country and from the west country;

⁸and I will bring them to live in Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.

⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts: Let your hands be strong — you that have recently been hearing these words from the mouths of the prophets who were present when the foundation was laid for the rebuilding of the temple, the house of the LORD of hosts.

¹⁰For before those days there were no wages for people or for animals, nor was there any safety from the foe for those who went out or came in, and I set them all against one another.

¹¹But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the LORD of hosts.

¹²For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, the ground shall give its produce, and the skies shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

¹³Just as you have been a cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you and you shall be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.

¹⁴For thus says the LORD of hosts: Just as I purposed to bring disaster upon you, when your ancestors provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the LORD of hosts,

¹⁵so again I have purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; do not be afraid.

¹⁶These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace,

¹⁷do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD.

¹⁸The word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying:

¹⁹Thus says the LORD of hosts: The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be seasons of joy and gladness, and cheerful festivals for the house of Judah: therefore love truth and peace.

²⁰Thus says the LORD of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, the inhabitants of many cities;

²¹the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Come, let us go to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I myself am going.”

²²Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of the LORD.

²³Thus says the LORD of hosts: In those days ten men from nations of every language shall take hold of a Jew, grasping his garment and saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”

¹An Oracle. The word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach and will rest upon Damascus. For to the LORD belongs the capital of Aram, as do all the tribes of Israel;

²Hamath also, which borders on it, Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.

³Tyre has built itself a rampart, and heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets.

⁴But now, the Lord will strip it of its possessions and hurl its wealth into the sea, and it shall be devoured by fire.

⁵Ashkelon shall see it and be afraid; Gaza too, and shall writhe in anguish; Ekron also, because its hopes are withered. The king shall perish from Gaza; Ashkelon shall be uninhabited;

⁶a mongrel people shall settle in Ashdod, and I will make an end of the pride of Philistia.

⁷I will take away its blood from its mouth, and its abominations from between its teeth; it too shall be a remnant for our God; it shall be like a clan in Judah, and Ekron shall be like the Jebusites.

⁸Then I will encamp at my house as a guard, so that no one shall march to and fro; no oppressor shall again overrun them, for now I have seen with my own eyes.

⁹Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁰He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

¹¹As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

¹²Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.

¹³For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow. I will arouse your sons, O Zion, against your sons, O Greece, and wield you like a warrior’s sword.

¹⁴Then the LORD will appear over them, and his arrow go forth like lightning; the Lord GOD will sound the trumpet and march forth in the whirlwinds of the south.

¹⁵The LORD of hosts will protect them, and they shall devour and tread down the slingers; they shall drink their blood like wine, and be full like a bowl, drenched like the corners of the altar.

¹⁶On that day the LORD their God will save them for they are the flock of his people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on his land.

¹⁷For what goodness and beauty are his! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the young women.

¹Ask rain from the LORD in the season of the spring rain, from the LORD who makes the storm clouds, who gives showers of rain to you, the vegetation in the field to everyone.

²For the teraphim utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; the dreamers tell false dreams, and give empty consolation. Therefore the people wander like sheep; they suffer for lack of a shepherd.

³My anger is hot against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the LORD of hosts cares for his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them like his proud war-horse.

⁴Out of them shall come the cornerstone, out of them the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out of them every commander.

⁵Together they shall be like warriors in battle, trampling the foe in the mud of the streets; they shall fight, for the LORD is with them, and they shall put to shame the riders on horses.

⁶I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back because I have compassion on them, and they shall be as though I had not rejected them; for I am the LORD their God and I will answer them.

⁷Then the people of Ephraim shall become like warriors, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine. Their children shall see it and rejoice, their hearts shall exult in the LORD.

⁸I will signal for them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them, and they shall be as numerous as they were before.

⁹Though I scattered them among the nations, yet in far countries they shall remember me, and they shall rear their children and return.

¹⁰I will bring them home from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria; I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon, until there is no room for them.

¹¹They shall pass through the sea of distress, and the waves of the sea shall be struck down, and all the depths of the Nile dried up. The pride of Assyria shall be laid low, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart.

¹²I will make them strong in the LORD, and they shall walk in his name, — says the LORD.

¹Open your doors, O Lebanon, so that fire may devour your cedars!

²Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, for the glorious trees are ruined! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has been felled!

³Listen, the wail of the shepherds, for their glory is despoiled! Listen, the roar of the lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed!

⁴Thus said the LORD my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.

⁵Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, “Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich”; and their own shepherds have no pity on them.

⁶For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbor, and each into the hand of the king; and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.

⁷So, on behalf of the sheep merchants, I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named Favor, the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep.

⁸In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me.

⁹So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!”

¹⁰I took my staff Favor and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples.

¹¹So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.

¹²I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver.

¹³Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it into the treasury” — this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury in the house of the LORD.

¹⁴Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.

¹⁵Then the LORD said to me: Take once more the implements of a worthless shepherd.

¹⁶For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy, but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.

¹⁷Oh, my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be completely withered, his right eye utterly blinded!

¹An Oracle. The word of the LORD concerning Israel: Thus says the LORD, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within:

²See, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples; it will be against Judah also in the siege against Jerusalem.

³On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth shall come together against it.

⁴On that day, says the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. But on the house of Judah I will keep a watchful eye, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.

⁵Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.”

⁶On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot on a pile of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.

⁷And the LORD will give victory to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over that of Judah.

⁸On that day the LORD will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the LORD, at their head.

⁹And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that, when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.

¹¹On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

¹²The land shall mourn, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves;

¹³the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself, and their wives by themselves;

¹⁴and all the families that are left, each by itself, and their wives by themselves.

¹On that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.

²On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more; and also I will remove from the land the prophets and the unclean spirit.

³And if any prophets appear again, their fathers and mothers who bore them will say to them, “You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD”; and their fathers and their mothers who bore them shall pierce them through when they prophesy.

⁴On that day the prophets will be ashamed, every one, of their visions when they prophesy; they will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive,

⁵but each of them will say, “I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil; for the land has been my possession since my youth.”

⁶And if anyone asks them, “What are these wounds on your chest?” the answer will be “The wounds I received in the house of my friends.”

⁷“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate,” — says the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.

⁸In the whole land, says the LORD, two-thirds shall be cut off and perish, and one-third shall be left alive.

⁹And I will put this third into the fire, refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, “They are my people”; and they will say, “The LORD is our God.”

¹See, a day is coming for the LORD, when the plunder taken from you will be divided in your midst.

²For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

³Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.

⁴On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward.

⁵And you shall flee by the valley of the LORD’s mountain, for the valley between the mountains shall reach to Azal; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

⁶On that day there shall not be either cold or frost.

⁷And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light.

⁸On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter.

⁹And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one.

¹⁰The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses.

¹¹And it shall be inhabited, for never again shall it be doomed to destruction; Jerusalem shall abide in security.

¹²This shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths.

¹³On that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will seize the hand of a neighbor, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other;

¹⁴even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected — gold, silver, and garments in great abundance.

¹⁵And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever animals may be in those camps.

¹⁶Then all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the festival of booths.

¹⁷If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them.

¹⁸And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then on them shall come the plague that the LORD inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.

¹⁹Such shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths.

²⁰On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the cooking pots in the house of the LORD shall be as holy as the bowls in front of the altar;

²¹and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice. And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

¹An oracle. The word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

²I have loved you, says the LORD. But you say, “How have you loved us?” Is not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the LORD. Yet I have loved Jacob

³but I have hated Esau; I have made his hill country a desolation and his heritage a desert for jackals.

⁴If Edom says, “We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins,” the LORD of hosts says: They may build, but I will tear down, until they are called the wicked country, the people with whom the LORD is angry forever.

⁵Your own eyes shall see this, and you shall say, “Great is the LORD beyond the borders of Israel!”

⁶A son honors his father, and servants their master. If then I am a father, where is the honor due me? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. You say, “How have we despised your name?”

⁷By offering polluted food on my altar. And you say, “How have we polluted it?” By thinking that the LORD’s table may be despised.

⁸When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not wrong? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not wrong? Try presenting that to your governor; will he be pleased with you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts.

⁹And now implore the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. The fault is yours. Will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts.

¹⁰Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands.

¹¹For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the LORD of hosts.

¹²But you profane it when you say that the Lord’s table is polluted, and the food for it may be despised.

¹³“What a weariness this is,” you say, and you sniff at me, says the LORD of hosts. You bring what has been taken by violence or is lame or sick, and this you bring as your offering! Shall I accept that from your hand? says the LORD.

¹⁴Cursed be the cheat who has a male in the flock and vows to give it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished; for I am a great King, says the LORD of hosts, and my name is reverenced among the nations.

¹And now, O priests, this command is for you.

²If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts, then I will send the curse on you and I will curse your blessings; indeed I have already cursed them, because you do not lay it to heart.

³I will rebuke your offspring, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.

⁴Know, then, that I have sent this command to you, that my covenant with Levi may hold, says the LORD of hosts.

⁵My covenant with him was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence, and he revered me and stood in awe of my name.

⁶True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in integrity and uprightness, and he turned many from iniquity.

⁷For the lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.

⁸But you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the LORD of hosts,

⁹and so I make you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept my ways but have shown partiality in your instruction.

¹⁰Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

¹¹Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD, which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

¹²May the LORD cut off from the tents of Jacob anyone who does this — any to witness or answer, or to bring an offering to the LORD of hosts.

¹³And this you do as well: You cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand.

¹⁴You ask, “Why does he not?” Because the LORD was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.

¹⁵Did not one God make her? Both flesh and spirit are his. And what does the one God desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves, and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth.

¹⁶For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, and covering one’s garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.

¹⁷You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “All who do evil are good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

¹See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap;

³he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

⁴Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years.

⁵Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.

⁶For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.

⁷Ever since the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you say, “How shall we return?”

⁸Will anyone rob God? Yet you are robbing me! But you say, “How are we robbing you?” In your tithes and offerings!

⁹You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me — the whole nation of you!

¹⁰Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.

¹¹I will rebuke the locust for you, so that it will not destroy the produce of your soil; and your vine in the field shall not be barren, says the LORD of hosts.

¹²Then all nations will count you happy, for you will be a land of delight, says the LORD of hosts.

¹³You have spoken harsh words against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have we spoken against you?”

¹⁴You have said, “It is vain to serve God. What do we profit by keeping his command or by going about as mourners before the LORD of hosts?

¹⁵Now we count the arrogant happy; evildoers not only prosper, but when they put God to the test they escape.”

¹⁶Then those who revered the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD took note and listened, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who revered the LORD and thought on his name.

¹⁷They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act, and I will spare them as parents spare their children who serve them.

¹⁸Then once more you shall see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.

¹See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

²But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

³And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.

⁴Remember the teaching of my servant Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel.

⁵Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.

⁶He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.