‘Proclaim further: This is what the Lord of Armies says: My cities will again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will once more comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’
You will say, ‘I will advance against a land of open villages; I will come against a tranquil people who are living securely, all of them living without walls and without bars or gates’ #– #
Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.’
On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a brazier in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and the left, while Jerusalem continues to be inhabited on its site, in Jerusalem.
‘Look, the days are coming’ #– #this is the Lord’s declaration #– #‘when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and the seed of animals.
who confirms the message of his servant and fulfils the counsel of his messengers; who says to Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited,’ and to the cities of Judah, ‘They will be rebuilt,’ and I will restore her ruins;
Look at Zion, the city of our festival times. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful pasture, a tent that does not wander; its tent pegs will not be pulled up nor will any of its cords be loosened.
God gave these four young men knowledge and understanding in every kind of literature and wisdom. Daniel also understood visions and dreams of every kind.
This explains why the rural Jews who live in villages observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a time of rejoicing and feasting. It is a holiday when they send gifts to one another.
young men without any physical defect, good-looking, suitable for instruction in all wisdom, knowledgeable, perceptive, and capable of serving in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the Chaldean language and literature.
Therefore, this is what the Lord says: In mercy, I have returned to Jerusalem; my house will be rebuilt within it #– #this is the declaration of the Lord of Armies #– #and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.
Look, I have created the craftsman who blows on the charcoal fire and produces a weapon suitable for its task; and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc.
This will be the plague with which the Lord strikes all the people who have warred against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.