Haggai 1

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

2This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, “The time has not yet come, the time for the house of Yahweh to be rebuilt.”

3Then the word of Yahweh came through the prophet Haggai:

4Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins?

5Now this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider carefully how you are living.

6You have sown much but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough; you drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but no one is warm. And whoever earns wages earns them only to put them in a bag with holes.

7This is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider carefully how you are living.

8Go up into the hills, bring down timber, and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says Yahweh.

9You looked for much, but it came to little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares Yahweh of Armies. Because of my house, which lies in ruins, while each of you runs off to his own house.

10Therefore, because of you, the heavens have held back the dew, and the earth has held back its produce.

11I have called for a drought on the land and on the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and whatever the ground produces, on people and on animals, and on all the labor of your hands.

12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of Yahweh their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because Yahweh their God had sent him. And the people feared Yahweh.

13Then Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, gave the people Yahweh’s message: “I am with you, declares Yahweh.”

14So Yahweh 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. They came and began to work on the house of Yahweh of Armies, their God,

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