And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls because of the multitude of men and cattle in it:
Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending presents one to another.
Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of its stakes shall ever be removed, neither shall any of its cords be broken.
That confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; that says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, you shall be built, and I will raise up its waste places:
The children which you shall have, after you have lost the other, shall say again in your ears, The place is too narrow for me: give a place to me that I may dwell.
Behold, I have created the blacksmith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the destroyer to destroy.
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the descendants of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
And you shall say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
Young men in whom was no blemish, but handsome, and skilful in all wisdom, and gifted in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the language of the Chaldeans.
Therefore thus says the LORD; I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.
Cry again, saying, Thus says the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall again be spread abroad; and the LORD shall again comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in sheaves; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall rot away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall rot away in their sockets, and their tongue shall rot away in their mouths.