Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T02:16:03.299Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

21 - Zechariah to Haggai

Diana Edelman
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Philip R. Davies
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Get access

Summary

Day 5, month 10, year 19 Artaxerxes, King of the Lands

From Zechariah ben Iddo to Haggai, my fellow servant of Yahweh:

May Yahweh shine his countenance upon you for your work on his behalf and grant you peace!

And now, I write to you, my colleague, to discuss the best strategy to use, seeing that the temple foundation is in place. Your harangue certainly shamed our brethren, both native and returnee, to begin this momentous task, whose enormity and cost is only now becoming clear. But I am sure you have noted the loss of enthusiasm and pessimistic tone that has set in with the poor harvest. After all, how much can the governor and high priest expect the people to sacrifice to realize the dreams of the few? They are donating their time and labor to rebuild this structure after working hard to support their families. Their land allotments have been useless to them with the drought that continues year after year, and what good is it to pay them in currency when they do their military rotations when there is no food for them to buy?

It would be easier if we could hold an edict from the Great King over their heads. The fortress and administrative buildings were built in no time, and all the families had enough to eat because of the daily rations.

Type
Chapter
Information
Yours Faithfully
Virtual Letters from the Bible
, pp. 111 - 112
Publisher: Acumen Publishing
Print publication year: 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×