-Judah-

Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; to appoint the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the LORD.

And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel. And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endures forever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity built the temple unto the LORD God of Israel; Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building, and hired counselors against them, to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia…. Then ceased the work of the house of God, which is at Jerusalem. It ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius* king of Persia.

Then the prophets, Haggai…and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel….

-Haggai-

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua the son of Jozadak, the high priest, saying, "This speaks the LORD of hosts…This people say, ‘The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.’ "

Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, " ‘Is it time for you, O you, to live in your paneled houses, and this house lie desolate?

" ‘Now therefore this says the LORD of hosts; consider your ways. You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.

" ‘This says the LORD of hosts; consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD.

" ‘You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that is desolate, and you run every man unto his own house.’ "

And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Jeshua the son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

In the seventh month, in the twenty-first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying, " ‘Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? And how do you see it now? Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

" ‘Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; and be strong, O Jeshua, son of Jozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land, says the LORD, and work: for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts.

" ‘For this says the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts.’ "

-Zechariah-

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah…the prophet, saying, " Be you not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, ‘This says the LORD of hosts; Turn you now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings’: but they did not hear, nor listen unto me, says the LORD.

"But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? And they returned and said, ‘Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.’ "

Upon the twenty-forth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah…the prophet, saying, "This speaks the LORD of hosts…Execute true judgment, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother: And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart."

"Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, ‘This says the LORD of hosts; Let your hands be strong, you that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.

" ‘For this says the LORD of hosts; As I thought to punish you, when your fathers provoked me to anger, says the LORD of hosts, and I repented not: So again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah: fear you not.

" ‘These are the things that you shall do; Speak…every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate, says the LORD.

" ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: look, your King comes unto you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon a donkey, and upon a colt the foal of a donkey.

" ‘And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. As for you also, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners out of the pit…

" ‘And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as a display upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty!

-The Messiah’s Price-

" ‘And I took my staff, even beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD. And I said unto them, If you think well, give me my price; and if not, don’t. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.

" ‘And the LORD said unto me, "Cast it unto the potter": a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the LORD.

-The LORD’S Burden-

" ‘The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, says the LORD, which stretches forth the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him. In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

" ‘And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.... And one shall say unto him, "What are these wounds in your hands?" Then he shall answer, "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

" ‘Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, says the LORD of hosts: strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.’ "

-Judah-

Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God, which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.

Then Darius the king made a decree. "Now therefore, Tatnai, governor beyond the river, Shetharboznai, and your companions the Apharsachites, which are beyond the river, be you far from there: Let the work of this house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God in his place.

"Furthermore I make a decree what you shall do to the elders of these Jews for the building of this house of God: that of the king's goods, even of the tribute beyond the river, promptly expenses be given unto these men, that they be not hindered. And that which they have need of, both young bullocks, and rams, and lambs, for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, and oil, according to the appointment of the priests which are at Jerusalem, let it be given them day by day without fail: And the God that has caused his name to live there destroy all kings and people, that shall put to their hand to alter and to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I Darius have made a decree; let it be done with speed."

And the elders of the Jews built, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they built, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel, and according to the commandment of Cyrus, and Darius, and Artaxerxes* king of Persia. And the LORD’S house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

Now after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra the son of Seraiah…went up from Babylon…he was a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given…. And there went up some of the children of Israel, and of the priests, and the Levites, and the singers, and the doorkeepers, and the Nethinims, unto Jerusalem, in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.

And Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes…according to the good hand of his God upon him. For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.

Now this is the copy of the letter that the King Artaxerxes gave unto Ezra the priest, the scribe, even a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD, and of his statutes to Israel.

"I make a decree, that all they of the people of Israel, and of his priests and Levites, in my realm, which decide of their own freewill to go up to Jerusalem, go with you. And whatever more shall be needful for the house of your God, which you shall have occasion to bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasure house. Whatever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be anger against the realm of the king and his sons?

"And you, Ezra, after the wisdom of your God, that is in your hand, set magistrates and judges, which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of your God; and teach…them that know them not. And whoever will not do the law of your God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment."

*Darius is the name of several rulers of ancient Persia. The Darius here referred to is Darius I, the Great, who reigned from about 522 to 485 B.C. He continued Cyrus the Great’s policy of restoring the Jews to their homeland.

*This Artaxerxese is Artaxerxese I Longimanus (long-handed) (464-424 B.C.). He authorized Ezera’s journey to Jerusalem and later gave the command to Nehemiah to restore and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

REFERENCES

Ezra 3:8, 10-11; Ezra 4:1, 4-5, 7, 16-17, 21, 24; Ezra 5:1; Haggai 1:1-9, 14; Haggai 2:1, 3-4, 6-7; Zechariah 1:1, 4, 6-7; Zechariah 7:9-10; Zechariah 8:1, 9, 14-17; Zechariah 9:9-11, 16-17; Zechariah 11:10-13; Zechariah 12:1, 8, 10; Zechariah 13:6-7; Ezra 5:2; Ezra 6:1, 6-9, 12; Ezra 6:14-15; Ezra 7:1a, 6a, 8-11, 13, 20, 23, 25-26.

CHAPTER 58