³ But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of families in Israel said to them, “You shall have no part with us in building a house for our God, but we alone will build for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus of Persia has commanded us.”^(A)

²⁰ Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven is the one who will give us success, and we his servants are going to start building, but you have no share or claim or memorial in Jerusalem.”^(A)

Diotrephes and Demetrius

⁹ I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not welcome us. ¹⁰ So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the brothers and sisters and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.^(A)

⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;^{(A) 5} to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.^[a] Amen.^(B)

²¹ You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God.^(A)

²² You^[a] worship what you^[b] do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(A) 23} But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.^(B)

Coming Persecutions

¹⁶ “I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.^(A)

Cyrus, God’s Instrument

³ In the first year of his reign, King Cyrus issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices are offered and burnt offerings are brought;^[a] its height shall be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,^{(A) 4} with three courses of hewn stones and one course of timber; let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.^{(B) 5} Moreover, let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God that Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon be restored and brought back to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its place; you shall put them in the house of God.”^(C)