A Call to Rebuild the Temple
1 On the first day of the sixth month, in the second year of the reign of Darius the king, the word of the LORD came by Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying 2 that this is what the LORD of Hosts says:
These people are saying,
“The time has not yet come,
the time for the house of the LORD to be built.”
3 Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai, the prophet, saying,
4 “Is it a time for you yourselves
to dwell in your paneled houses,
while this house lies in ruins?”
5 Now therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says:
“Consider your ways.
6 You have sown much
and brought in little.
You eat, but you do not have enough.
You drink, but you are not filled with drink.
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm,
and he who earns wages
earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.”
7 This is what the LORD of Hosts says:
“Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain,
bring wood, and build the house.
I will take pleasure in it,
and I will be glorified,” says the LORD.
9 “You looked for much,
and it came to little,
and when you brought it home,
I blew it away.
Why?” says the LORD of Hosts,
“Because of my house that lies waste,
while each of you is busy with his own house.
10 Therefore because of you
the heavens withhold the dew,
and the earth withholds its fruit.
11 I called for a drought on the land,
on the mountains, on the grain,
on the new wine, on the oil,
on that which the ground produces,
on men, on livestock,
and on all the labor of your hands.”
The People Obey
12 Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD, their God had sent him, and the people feared the LORD.
13 Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says the LORD.
14 The LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God, 15 on the 24th day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.