The Living Bible (295 page)

Zechariah
13

“At that time a Fountain will be opened to the people of Israel and Jerusalem, a Fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and defilement.”

    
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 And the Lord Almighty declares, “In that day I will get rid of every vestige of idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. All false prophets and fortune-tellers will be wiped out,
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 and if anyone begins false prophecy again, his own father and mother will slay him! ‘You must die,’ they will tell him, ‘for you are prophesying lies in the name of the Lord.’

    
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 “No one will be boasting then of his prophetic gift! No one will wear prophet’s clothes to try to fool the people then.

    
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 “‘No,’ he will say. ‘I am not a prophet; I am a farmer. The soil has been my livelihood from my earliest youth.’

    
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 “And if someone asks, ‘Then what are these scars on your chest and your back?’
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he will say, ‘I got into a brawl at the home of a friend!’
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 “Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, the man who is my associate and equal,” says the Lord Almighty. “Strike down the Shepherd and the sheep will scatter, but I will come back and comfort and care for the lambs.
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 Two-thirds of all the nation of Israel will be cut off and die,
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but a third will be left in the land.
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 I will bring the third that remain through the fire and make them pure, as gold and silver are refined and purified by fire. They will call upon my name and I will hear them; I will say, ‘These are my people,’ and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”

Zechariah
14

Watch, for the day of the Lord is coming soon! On that day the Lord will gather together the nations to fight Jerusalem; the city will be taken, the houses rifled, the loot divided, the women raped; half the population will be taken away as slaves, and half will be left in what remains of the city.

    
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 Then the Lord will go out fully armed for war, to fight against those nations.
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 That day his feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives, to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will split apart, making a very wide valley running from east to west, for half the mountain will move toward the north and half toward the south.
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 You will escape through that valley, for it will reach across to the city gate.
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Yes, you will escape as your people did long centuries ago from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and the Lord my God shall come, and all his saints and angels
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with him.

    
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 The sun and moon and stars will no longer shine,
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 yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how! There will be no normal day and night—at evening time it will still be light.
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 Life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously both in winter and in summer.

    
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 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day there shall be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped.
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 All the land from Geba (the northern border of Judah) to Rimmon (the southern border) will become one vast plain, but Jerusalem will be on an elevated site, covering the area all the way from the Gate of Benjamin over to the site of the old gate, then to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
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 And Jerusalem shall be inhabited, safe at last, never again to be cursed and destroyed.

    
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 And the Lord will send a plague on all the people who fought Jerusalem. They will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away; their eyes will shrivel in their sockets, and their tongues will decay in their mouths.

    
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 They will be seized with terror, panic-stricken from the Lord, and will fight against each other in hand-to-hand combat.
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 All Judah will be fighting at Jerusalem.
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The wealth of all the neighboring nations will be confiscated—great quantities of gold and silver and fine clothing.
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 (This same plague will strike the horses, mules, camels, donkeys, and all the other animals in the enemy camp.)

    
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 In the end, those who survive the plague will go up to Jerusalem each year to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, to celebrate a time of thanksgiving.
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 And any nation anywhere in all the world that refuses to come to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord Almighty, will have no rain.
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 But if Egypt refuses to come, God will punish her with some other plague.
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 And so Egypt and the other nations will all be punished if they refuse to come.

    
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 In that day the bells on the horses will have written on them, “These Are Holy Property”;
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and the trash cans in the Temple of the Lord will be as sacred as the bowls beside the altar.
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 In fact, every container in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the Lord Almighty; all who come to worship may use any of them free of charge to boil their sacrifices in; there will be no more grasping traders in the Temple of the Lord Almighty!

Malachi

1
 
2
 
3
 
4
 

Malachi
1

Here is the Lord’s message to Israel, given through the prophet Malachi:

    
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 “I have loved you very deeply,” says the Lord.

    
But you retort, “Really? When was this?”

    
And the Lord replies, “I showed my love for you by loving your father, Jacob. I didn’t need to. I even rejected his very own brother, Esau, and destroyed Esau’s mountains and inheritance, to give it to the jackals of the desert.
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 And if his descendants should say, ‘We will rebuild the ruins,’ then the Lord Almighty will say, ‘Try to if you like, but I will destroy it again,’ for their country is named ‘The Land of Wickedness,’ and their people are called ‘Those Whom God Does Not Forgive.’”

    
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 O Israel, lift your eyes to see what God is doing all around the world; then you will say, “Truly, the Lord’s great power goes far beyond our borders!”

    
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 “A son honors his father, a servant honors his master. I am your Father and Master, yet you don’t honor me, O priests, but you despise my name.”

    
“Who? Us?” you say. “When did we ever despise your name?”

    
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 “When you offer polluted sacrifices on my altar.”

    
“Polluted sacrifices? When have we ever done a thing like that?”

    
“Every time you say, ‘Don’t bother bringing anything very valuable to offer to God!’
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 You tell the people, ‘Lame animals are all right to offer on the altar of the Lord—yes, even the sick and the blind ones.’ And you claim this isn’t evil? Try it on your governor sometime—give him gifts like that—and see how pleased he is!

    
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 “‘God have mercy on us,’ you recite; ‘God be gracious to us!’ But when you bring that kind of gift, why should he show you any favor at all?

    
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 “Oh, to find one priest among you who would shut the doors and refuse this kind of sacrifice! I have no pleasure in you,” says the Lord Almighty, “and I will not accept your offerings.

    
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 “But my name will be honored by the Gentiles from morning till night. All around the world they will offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name shall be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty.
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 “But you dishonor it, saying that my altar is not important and encouraging people to bring cheap, sick animals to offer to me on it.

    
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 “You say, ‘Oh, it’s too difficult to serve the Lord and do what he asks.’ And you turn up your noses at the rules he has given you to obey. Think of it! Stolen animals, lame and sick—as offerings to God! Should I accept such offerings as these?” asks the Lord.
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 “Cursed is that man who promises a fine ram from his flock and substitutes a sick one to sacrifice to God. For I am a Great King,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be mightily revered among the Gentiles.”

Malachi
2

Listen, you priests, to this warning from the Lord Almighty:

    
“If you don’t change your ways and give glory to my name, then I will send terrible punishment upon you, and instead of giving you blessings as I would like to, I will turn on you with curses. Indeed, I have cursed you already because you haven’t taken seriously the things that are most important to me.

    
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 “Take note that I will rebuke your children; I will spread on your faces the manure of these animals you offer me and throw you out like dung.
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 Then at last you will know it was I who sent you this warning to return to the laws I gave your father Levi,” says the Lord Almighty.
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 “The purpose of these laws was to give him life and peace, to be a means of showing his respect and awe for me by keeping them.
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 He passed on to the people all the truth he got from me. He did not lie or cheat; he walked with me, living a good and righteous life, and turned many from their lives of sin.

    
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 “Priests’ lips should flow with the knowledge of God so the people will learn God’s laws. The priests are the messengers of the Lord Almighty, and men should come to them for guidance.
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 But not to you! For you have left God’s paths. Your ‘guidance’ has caused many to stumble in sin. You have distorted the covenant of Levi and made it into a grotesque parody,” says the Lord Almighty.
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 “Therefore, I have made you contemptible in the eyes of all the people; for you have not obeyed me, but you let your favorites break the law without rebuke.”

    
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 We are children of the same father, Abraham, all created by the same God. And yet we are faithless to each other, violating the covenant of our fathers!
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 In Judah, in Israel, and in Jerusalem, there is treachery, for the men of Judah have defiled God’s holy and beloved Temple by marrying heathen women who worship idols.
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 May the Lord cut off from his covenant every last man, whether priest or layman, who has done this thing!

    
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 Yet you cover the altar with your tears because the Lord doesn’t pay attention to your offerings anymore, and you receive no blessing from him.
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 “Why has God abandoned us?” you cry. I’ll tell you why; it is because the Lord has seen your treachery in divorcing your wives who have been faithful to you through the years, the companions you promised to care for and keep.
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 You were united to your wife by the Lord. In God’s wise plan, when you married, the two of you became one person in his sight. And what does he want? Godly children from your union. Therefore, guard your passions! Keep faith with the wife of your youth.

    
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 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says he hates divorce and cruel men. Therefore, control your passions—let there be no divorcing of your wives.

    
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 You have wearied the Lord with your words.

    
“Wearied him?” you ask in fake surprise. “How have we wearied him?”

    
By saying that evil is good, that it pleases the Lord! Or by saying that God won’t punish us—he doesn’t care.