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‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
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“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
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I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty.
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‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
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‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”
Blessings for a Defiled People
10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai:
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“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Ask the priests what the law says:
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If someone carries consecrated meat in the fold of their garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, olive oil or other food, does it become consecrated?’ ” The priests answered, “No.”
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Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?” “Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.”
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Then Haggai said, “ ‘So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the LORD. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.
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“ ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on —consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD’s temple.