Haggai Chapter 1

Haggai Begins Temple Building

1In the 1second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet 2Haggai to 3Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, 4governor of Judah, and to 5Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2“Thus says the Lord of 6hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.”’” 3Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4“Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house 7lies desolate?” 5Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “8Consider your ways! 6You have 9sown much, but 10harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is 11not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”

7Thus says the Lord of hosts, “12Consider your ways! 8Go up to the 13mountains, bring wood and 14rebuild the 15temple, that I may be 16pleased with it and be 17glorified,” says the Lord. 9“18You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I 19blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which 20lies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. 10Therefore, because of you the 21sky has withheld 22its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. 11I called for a 23drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on 24men, on cattle, and on 25all the labor of 26your hands.”

12Then 27Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and 28Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, 29obeyed 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 3031showed reverence for the Lord. 13Then Haggai, the 32messenger of the Lord, spoke 33by the commission of the Lord to the people saying, “‘34I am with you,’ declares the Lord.” 14So the Lord stirred up the spirit of 35Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, 36governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the 37remnant of the people; and they came and 38worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.