So you must tell the people what the Lord All-Powerful says, “Come back to me, says the Lord All-Powerful, and I will come back to you.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

Then the angel told me to tell the people this: The Lord All-Powerful says: “I have a strong love for Jerusalem and Zion.

So the Lord says, “I will come back to Jerusalem and comfort her.” The Lord All-Powerful says, “Jerusalem will be rebuilt, and my house will be built there.”

The angel also said, “The Lord All-Powerful says, ‘My towns will be rich again. I will comfort Zion. I will again choose Jerusalem to be my special city.’”

The Lord says, ‘I will be a wall of fire around her, to protect her, and to bring glory to that city, I will live there.’”

God Calls His People Home

The Lord says,

The Lord says, “Zion, be happy, because I am coming, and I will live in your city.

Then the angel of the Lord said, “The Lord says that you are wrong, and he will continue to correct you! The Lord has chosen Jerusalem to be his special city. He saved that city—it was like a burning stick pulled from the fire.”

The Lord All-Powerful says, “At that time people will sit and talk with their friends and neighbors. They will invite each other to sit under the fig trees and grapevines.”

He said, “This is the message from the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Your help will not come from your own strength and power. No, your help will come from my Spirit.’ This is what the Lord All-Powerful says.

The Lord All-Powerful says, ‘I will send that scroll to the houses of thieves and people who lie when they use my name to make promises. That scroll will settle there and destroy even the stones and wooden posts of their houses.’”

Then tell him this is what the Lord All-Powerful says: ‘There is a man called the Branch. He will grow strong, and he will build the Lord’s Temple.

People living far away will come and build the Lord’s Temple. Then you will know for sure that the Lord All-Powerful sent me to you people. All these things will happen if you do what the Lord your God says.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “I have a very strong love for Mount Zion. I love her so much that I became angry when she was not faithful to me.”

The Lord says, “I have come back to Zion, and I am living in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called Faithful City. The mountain of the Lord All-Powerful will be called Holy Mountain.”

The Lord All-Powerful says, “Old men and women will again be seen in the public places in Jerusalem. People will live so long that they will need their walking sticks.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “The survivors will think it is wonderful, and so will I!”

The Lord All-Powerful says, “Look, I am rescuing my people from countries in the east and west.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “Be strong! You people are hearing the same message today that the prophets gave when the Lord All-Powerful first laid the foundations to rebuild his Temple.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “Your ancestors made me angry, so I decided to destroy them. I decided not to change my mind.” This is what the Lord All-Powerful said.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “You have special days of sadness and fasting in the fourth month, the fifth month, the seventh month, and the tenth month. These days of sadness must be changed into days of happiness. They will be good and happy festivals. And you must love truth and peace.”

The Lord All-Powerful says, “In the future, people from many cities will come to Jerusalem.

The Lord All-Powerful says, “At that time many foreigners speaking different languages will come to a Jewish man, take hold of the hem of his robe, and ask, ‘We heard that God is with you. Can we come with you to worship him?’”

The people in Ashdod will not even know who their real fathers are. The Lord says, “I will completely destroy the proud Philistines.

The Lord says, “I am very angry with the shepherds. I made them responsible for what happens to my sheep.” (The people of Judah are his flock, and the Lord All-Powerful really does take care of his flock. He cares for them as a soldier cares for his beautiful war horse.)

The Lord my God says, “Care for the sheep that have been raised to be killed.