14 Man who is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.

² He comes forth like a flower and withers; he flees also like a shadow and continues not.

³ And [Lord] do You open Your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with You?

⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!^(A)

⁵ Since a man’s days are already determined, and the number of his months is wholly in Your control, and he cannot pass the bounds of his allotted time—

⁶ [O God] turn from him [and cease to watch him so pitilessly]; let him rest until he has accomplished as does a hireling the appointed time for his day.

⁷ For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again and that the tender shoots of it will not cease. [But there is no such hope for man.]

⁸ Though its roots grow old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground,

⁹ Yet through the scent [and breathing] of water [the stump of the tree] will bud and bring forth boughs like a young plant.

¹⁰ But [the brave, strong] man must die and lie prostrate; yes, man breathes his last, and where is he?

¹¹ As waters evaporate from the lake, and the river drains and dries up,

¹² So man lies down and does not rise [to his former state]. Till the heavens are no more, men will not awake nor be raised [physically] out of their sleep.

¹³ Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the unseen state), that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, that You would set a definite time and then remember me earnestly [and imprint me on your heart]!

¹⁴ If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare and service I will wait, till my change and release shall come.^(B)

¹⁵ When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these [others do—with reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion, as one loves the Father]? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You [that I have deep, instinctive, personal affection for You, as for a close friend]. He said to him, Feed My lambs.

¹⁶ Again He said to him the second time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion, as one loves the Father]? He said to Him, Yes, Lord, You know that I love You [that I have a deep, instinctive, personal affection for You, as for a close friend]. He said to him, Shepherd (tend) My sheep.

¹⁷ He said to him the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love Me [with a deep, instinctive, personal affection for Me, as for a close friend]? Peter was grieved (was saddened and hurt) that He should ask him the third time, Do you love Me? And he said to Him, Lord, You know everything; You know that I love You [that I have a deep, instinctive, personal affection for You, as for a close friend]. Jesus said to him, Feed My sheep.

¹⁸ I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, when you were young you girded yourself [put on your own belt or girdle] and you walked about wherever you pleased to go. But when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will put a girdle around you and carry you where you do not wish to go.

¹⁹ He said this to indicate by what kind of death Peter would glorify God. And after this, He said to him, Follow Me!

8 And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying,

² Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath [against her enemies].

³ Thus says the Lord: I shall return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the [faithful] City of Truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.

⁴ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Old men and old women shall again dwell in Jerusalem and sit out in the streets, every man with his staff in his hand for very [advanced] age.

⁵ And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.

⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Because it will be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days [in which it comes to pass], should it also be marvelous in My eyes? says the Lord of hosts.^(A)

⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save My people from the east country and from the west [the country of the going down of the sun].^(B)

⁸ And I will bring them [home] and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God in truth and faithfulness and in righteousness.

⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Let your hands be strong and hardened, you who in these days hear these words from the mouths of the prophets who on the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid foretold that the temple should be rebuilt.

¹⁰ For before those days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, neither was there any peace or success to him who went out or came in because of the adversary and oppressor, for I set (let loose) all men, every one against his neighbor.

¹¹ But now [in this period since you began to build] I am not to the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts.

¹² For there shall the seed produce peace and prosperity; the vine shall yield her fruit and the ground shall give its increase and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit and possess all these things.

¹³ And as you have been a curse and a byword among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong and hardened.^(C)

¹⁴ For thus says the Lord of hosts: As I thought to bring calamity upon you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath, says the Lord of hosts, and I did not relent or revoke your sentence,

¹⁵ So again have I purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear not!

¹⁶ These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor; render the truth and pronounce the judgment or verdict that makes for peace in [the courts at] your gates.^(D)

¹⁷ And let none of you think or imagine or devise evil or injury in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the Lord.

¹⁸ And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me [Zechariah], saying,