Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes

26 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, ^2 (A)you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall ^(B)go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. ³ And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land ^(C)that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ ⁴ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.

⁵ “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A ^(D)wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, ^(E)few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶ And ^(F)the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. ⁷ Then ^(G)we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. ⁸ And ^(H)the Lord brought us out of Egypt ^(I)with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror,^[a] with signs and wonders. ⁹ And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, ^(J)a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹ And ^(K)you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

¹² “When you have finished paying all ^(L)the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is ^(M)the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³ then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, ^(N)nor have I forgotten them. ^14 (O)I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it ^(P)to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me. ^15 (Q)Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

The People of Israel Confess Their Sin

9 Now on the twenty-fourth day of ^(A)this month the people of Israel were assembled ^(B)with fasting ^(C)and in sackcloth, ^(D)and with earth on their heads. ^2 (E)And the Israelites^[a] separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. ^3 (F)And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God. ⁴ On the stairs of the Levites stood ^(G)Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani; and they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. ⁵ Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah, said, “Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. ^(H)Blessed be your glorious name, which is exalted above all blessing and praise.

^{6 [b] (I)}“You are the Lord, you alone. ^(J)You have made heaven, ^(K)the heaven of heavens, ^(L)with all their host, ^(M)the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; ^(N)and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you. ⁷ You are the Lord, the God ^(O)who chose Abram and brought him out of ^(P)Ur of the Chaldeans ^(Q)and gave him the name Abraham. ^8 (R)You found his heart faithful before you, ^(S)and made with him the covenant to give to his offspring ^(T)the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, and the Girgashite. ^(U)And you have kept your promise, for you are righteous.

^9 (V)“And you saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt and heard ^(W)their cry at the Red Sea, ^10 (X)and performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land, for you knew that ^(Y)they acted arrogantly against our fathers. And ^(Z)you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day. ^11 (AA)And you divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and you cast their pursuers into the depths, ^(AB)as a stone into mighty waters. ¹² By ^(AC)a pillar of cloud you led them in the day, and by a pillar of fire in the night to light for them the way in which they should go. ^13 (AD)You came down on Mount Sinai ^(AE)and spoke with them from heaven and gave them ^(AF)right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, ^14 (AG)and you made known to them your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. ^15 (AH)You gave them bread from heaven for their hunger and ^(AI)brought water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and you ^(AJ)told them to go in to possess the land that you had sworn to give them.

¹⁶ “But they and our fathers ^(AK)acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. ¹⁷ They refused to obey ^(AL)and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.^[c] But you are a God ready to forgive, ^(AM)gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. ¹⁸ Even ^(AN)when they had made for themselves a golden^[d] calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ ^(AO)and had committed great blasphemies,

A Call to Return to the Lord

1 In the eighth month, ^(A)in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet ^(B)Zechariah, the son of ^(C)Berechiah, son of ^(D)Iddo, saying, ^2 (E)“The Lord was very angry with your fathers. ³ Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: ^(F)Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and ^(G)I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. ^4 (H)Do not be like your fathers, ^(I)to whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, ^(J)Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But ^(K)they did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. ⁵ Your fathers, where are they? And ^(L)the prophets, do they live forever? ^6 (M)But my words and my statutes, which I commanded ^(N)my servants the prophets, did they not ^(O)overtake your fathers? So they repented and said, ^(P)‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for ^(Q)our ways and ^(R)deeds, so has he dealt with us.’”

A Vision of a Horseman

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet ^(S)Zechariah, the son of ^(T)Berechiah, son of ^(U)Iddo, saying, ⁸ “I saw in the night, and behold, ^(V)a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were ^(W)red, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹ Then I said, ‘What are these, my lord?’ ^(X)The angel who talked with me said to me, ‘I will show you what they are.’ ¹⁰ So ^(Y)the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, ^(Z)‘These are they whom the Lord has sent to ^(AA)patrol the earth.’ ¹¹ And they answered ^(AB)the angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, and said, ^(AC)‘We have patrolled the earth, and behold, all the earth ^(AD)remains at rest.’ ¹² Then ^(AE)the angel of the Lord said, ^(AF)‘O Lord of hosts, ^(AG)how long will you ^(AH)have no mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have been angry these ^(AI)seventy years?’ ¹³ And the Lord answered ^(AJ)gracious and comforting words to ^(AK)the angel who talked with me. ¹⁴ So ^(AL)the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(AM)I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. ^15 (AN)And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are ^(AO)at ease; ^(AP)for while I was angry but a little, ^(AQ)they furthered the disaster. ¹⁶ Therefore, thus says the Lord, ^(AR)I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; ^(AS)my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and ^(AT)the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. ¹⁷ Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(AU)My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, ^(AV)and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again ^(AW)choose Jerusalem.’”

6 ^(A)There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: ² a man ^(B)to whom ^(C)God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he ^(D)lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God ^(E)does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity;^[a] it is a grievous evil. ³ If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that ^(F)the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life's ^(G)good things, and he also has no ^(H)burial, I say that ^(I)a stillborn child is better off than he. ⁴ For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. ⁵ Moreover, it has not ^(J)seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds ^(K)rest rather than he. ⁶ Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy^[b] no good—do not all go to the one place?

^7 (L)All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.^{[c] 8} For what advantage has the wise man ^(M)over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? ⁹ Better ^(N)is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is ^(O)vanity and a striving after wind.

¹⁰ Whatever has come to be has ^(P)already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to ^(Q)dispute with one stronger than he. ¹¹ The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? ¹² For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his ^(R)vain^[d] life, which he passes like ^(S)a shadow? For who can tell man what will be ^(T)after him under the sun?

⁷ Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for ^(A)if I do not go away, ^(B)the Helper will not come to you. But ^(C)if ^(D)I go, ^(E)I will send him to you. ^8 (F)And when he comes, he will ^(G)convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ concerning sin, ^(H)because they do not believe in me; ^10 (I)concerning righteousness, ^(J)because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; ^11 (K)concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world ^(L)is judged.

¹² “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. ¹³ When ^(M)the Spirit of truth comes, ^(N)he will ^(O)guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but ^(P)whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. ¹⁴ He will ^(Q)glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. ^15 (R)All that the Father has is mine; ^(S)therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Satan Thrown Down to Earth

⁷ Now war arose in heaven, ^(A)Michael and ^(B)his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, ⁸ but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. ⁹ And ^(C)the great dragon was thrown down, ^(D)that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, ^(E)the deceiver of the whole world—^(F)he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now ^(G)the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers^[a] has been thrown down, ^(H)who accuses them day and night before our God. ¹¹ And ^(I)they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for ^(J)they loved not their lives ^(K)even unto death. ¹² Therefore, ^(L)rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But ^(M)woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because ^(N)he knows that his time is short!”

¹³ And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued ^(O)the woman who had given birth to the male child. ¹⁴ But the woman was given the two ^(P)wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent ^(Q)into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished ^(R)for a time, and times, and half a time. ¹⁵ The serpent poured water ^(S)like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. ¹⁶ But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. ¹⁷ Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off ^(T)to make war on the rest of ^(U)her offspring, ^(V)on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to ^(W)the testimony of Jesus. And he stood^[b] on the sand of the sea.