¹⁶ Therefore, thus says the Lord, ^(A)I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; ^(B)my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and ^(C)the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.

³ Thus says the Lord: ^(A)I have returned to Zion and ^(B)will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, ^(C)and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, ^(D)and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain.

^10 (A)Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for ^(B)behold, I come ^(C)and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. ^11 (D)And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. ^(E)And I will dwell in your midst, and ^(F)you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

²⁴ “My servant ^(A)David ^(B)shall be king over them, and they shall all have ^(C)one shepherd. ^(D)They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. ^25 (E)They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there ^(F)forever, and David my servant shall be their prince ^(G)forever. ^26 (H)I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be ^(I)an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land^[a] and ^(J)multiply them, and will ^(K)set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. ^27 (L)My dwelling place shall be with them, ^(M)and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ²⁸ Then ^(N)the nations will know that ^(O)I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when ^(P)my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

^14 (A)And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and ^(B)by decree of Cyrus and ^(C)Darius and ^(D)Artaxerxes king of Persia; ¹⁵ and this house was finished on the third day of the ^(E)month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

^9 (A)“The hands of ^(B)Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also ^(C)complete it. ^(D)Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

A Vision of a Man with a Measuring Line

2 ^[a] And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, ^(A)a man with a measuring line in his hand! ² Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, ^(B)“To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”

³ Going on eastward with a measuring line in his hand, ^(A)the man measured a thousand cubits,^[a] and then led me through the water, and it was ankle-deep.