Haggai 1

A Call to Rebuild the Temple

1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

2 “This is what the LORD of armies says: These people say the time has not come for the LORD’s house to be rebuilt.”

3 Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet, saying,

4 “Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?”

5 Now this is what the LORD of armies says: “Think carefully about your ways.

6 You planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never get full. You put on clothes but never stay warm. The one earning wages puts them into a bag with holes.”

The People Obey the LORD

7 This is what the LORD of armies says: “Think carefully about your ways.

8 Go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild the house so I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD.

9 “You expected much, but look, it turned out to be little. When you brought it home, I blew it away. Why,” declares the LORD of armies. “Because My house still lies in ruins while each of you runs to his own house.

10 That is why the heavens held back their dew and the earth held back its crops.

11 I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on everything the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the work of your hands.”

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, and all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, because 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,” declares the LORD.

14 So the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and began work on the house of the LORD of armies, their God,

15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.