¹⁶ since those days, ^(A)when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty. ^17 (B)I struck you with blight and mildew and hail ^(C)in all the labors of your hands; ^(D)yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸ ‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from ^(E)the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid—consider it:

Christ Brings Division^(A)

^34 (B)“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to ^(C)‘set^[a] a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; ³⁶ and ^(D)‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’

⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! ⁸ Go up to the ^(C)mountains and bring wood and build the ^[a]temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. ^9 (D)“You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, ^(E)I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore ^(F)the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. ¹¹ For I ^(G)called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on ^(H)all the labor of your hands.”

¹⁶ “Behold, I will send for many ^(A)fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

⁵ And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. ^6 (A)So nation was ^[a]destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. ⁷ But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”