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¹⁴So the angel who talked with me said to me, Proclaim this message: Thus says the Lord of hosts; I am very jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. ¹⁵And I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse. ¹⁶Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. ¹⁷Proclaim further: Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.

Second Vision: The Horns and the Smiths

18 ^*And I looked up and saw four horns. ¹⁹I asked the angel who talked with me, ‘What are these?’ And he answered me, ‘These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.’ ²⁰Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths. ²¹And I asked, ‘What are they coming to do?’ He answered, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no head could be raised; but these have come to terrify them, to strike down the horns of the nations that lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.’^*

Third Vision: The Man with a Measuring Line

2^*I looked up and saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. ²Then I asked, ‘Where are you going?’ He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.’ ³Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him, ⁴and said to him, ‘Run, say to that young man: Jerusalem shall be inhabited like villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and animals in it. ⁵For I will be a wall of fire all round it, says the Lord, and I will be the glory within it.’

Interlude: An Appeal to the Exiles

6 Up, up! Flee from the land of the north, says the Lord; for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven, says the Lord. ⁷Up! Escape to Zion, you that live with daughter Babylon. ⁸For thus said the Lord of hosts (after his glory^* sent me) regarding the nations that plundered you: Truly, one who touches you touches the apple of my eye.^{* 9}See now, I am going to raise^* my hand against them, and they shall become plunder for their own slaves. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me.