2 And I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.

² Then said I, Where are you going? And he said to me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length.

³ And behold, the angel who talked with me went forth and another angel went out to meet him,

⁴ And he said to the second angel, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited and dwell as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it.

⁵ For I, says the Lord, will be to her a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.

⁶ Ho! ho! [Hear and] flee from the land of the north, says the Lord, and from the four winds of the heavens, for to them have I scattered you, says the Lord.

⁷ Ho! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon!

⁸ For thus said the Lord of hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you—for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye:

⁹ Behold, I will swing my hand over them and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger].

¹⁰ Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion; for behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord.

¹¹ And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day and shall be My people. And I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger] to you.^(A)

¹² And the Lord shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land and shall again choose Jerusalem.

¹³ Be still, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused and risen from His holy habitation.^(B)

3 Then [the guiding angel] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before ^[a]the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at Joshua’s right hand to be his adversary and to accuse him.

² And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! Even the Lord, Who [now and habitually] chooses Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this [returned captive Joshua] a brand plucked out of the fire?^(A)

³ Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the Angel [of the Lord].

⁴ And He spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And He said to [Joshua], Behold, I have caused your iniquity to pass from you, and I will clothe you with rich apparel.

⁵ And I [Zechariah] said, Let them put a clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with [rich] garments. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.

⁶ And the Angel of the Lord [solemnly and earnestly] protested and affirmed to Joshua, saying,

⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: If you will walk in My ways and keep My charge, then also you shall rule My house and have charge of My courts, and I will give you access [to My presence] and places to walk among these who stand here.

⁸ Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, you and your colleagues who [usually] sit before you—for they are men who are a sign or omen [types of what is to come]—for behold, I will bring forth My servant the ^[b]Branch.^(B)

⁹ For behold, upon the stone which I have set before Joshua, upon that one stone are seven eyes or facets [the all-embracing providence of God and the sevenfold radiations of the Spirit of God]. Behold, I will carve upon it its inscription, says the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity and guilt of this land in a single day.^(C)

¹⁰ In that day, says the Lord of hosts, you shall invite each man his neighbor under his own vine and his own fig tree.^(D)

6 What shall we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow?

² Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

³ Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

⁴ We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].

⁶ We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.

⁷ For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].

⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

⁹ Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.

¹⁰ For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

¹¹ Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

¹² Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.

¹³ Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and ^[a]faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and ^[b]faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

¹⁴ For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].

¹⁵ What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not!

¹⁶ Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

¹⁷ But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.

¹⁸ And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

¹⁹ I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and ^[a]faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and ^[b]faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

²¹ But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.

²² But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.

²³ For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.