Haggai 1

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of God was by the hand of Haggai the prophet to the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and to the high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak, saying,

“Thus says God of Armies, saying: ‘This people, they say, “The time has not come to rebuild the house of God.”’”

Then the word of God came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying,

“{Is it} a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house {is} desolate?

So now, thus says God of Armies: ‘Set your heart upon your ways! 6 You have sown much, but you have brought in little. You eat, but not to satiety. You drink, but not {enough} to become drunk. One wears clothes, but he does not warm himself. And the wage earner earns wages into a punctured bag!’

Thus says God of Armies: ‘Set your heart upon your ways! 8 Go up {to} the mountain and bring timber and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,’ says God. 9 ‘You looked for much, but behold, little! And you brought {it} home, but I blew upon it! Because of what?’—the declaration of God of Armies. ‘Because of my house, that it {is} desolate, but you are running, a man to his house. \* 10 Therefore the heavens above you refrain from dew and the earth withholds its produce. 11 And I have called for desolation upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the grain and upon the new wine and upon the oil and upon what the ground produces and upon the man and upon the beast and upon all the labor of {your} hands!’” \*

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all of the remnant of the people listened to the voice of God their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, because God their God had sent him and the people feared the face of God.

Then Haggai, the messenger of God, spoke the message of God to the people, saying, “‘I {am} with you!’—the declaration of God.” \*

And God awakened the spirit of the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all of the remnant of the people, and they came and did the work on the house of God of Armies, their God,

on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king, \*