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“This is what the Lord of armies 6says: ‘This people says, “The time has not come, 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 live in your paneled houses while this house remains 7desolate?” 5Now then, the Lord of armies says this: “8Consider your ways! 6You have 9sown much, only to 10harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but there is not enough for 11anyone to get warm; and the one who earns, earns wages to put into a money bag full of holes.”

7The Lord of armies says this: “12Consider your ways! 8Go up to the 13mountains, bring wood, and 14rebuild the 15temple, that I may be 16pleased with it and be 17honored,” says the Lord. 9“18You 19start an ambitious project, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I 20blow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of armies. “It is because of My house which 21remains desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. 10Therefore, because of you the 22sky has withheld 23its dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11And I called for a 24drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on 25mankind, on cattle, and on 26all the products of the labor of 27your hands.”

12Then 28Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and 29Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, 30obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, just as the Lord their God had sent him. And the people 3132showed reverence for the Lord. 13Then Haggai, the 33messenger of the Lord, spoke 34by the commission of the Lord to the people, saying, “‘35I am with you,’ declares the Lord.” 14So the Lord stirred up the spirit of 36Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, 37governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the 38remnant of the people; and they came and 39worked on the house of the Lord of armies, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.