1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest. It said,
2"This is what the LORD of hosts says: This people say, 'The time has not come for the LORD's house to be built.'"
3Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet. It said,
4"Is it time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?"
5So now this is what the LORD of hosts says: Think carefully about your ways.
6"You have sown much, but you bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you are not filled. You put on clothes, but no one is warm. Whoever earns wages earns them to put into a bag with holes."
7This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Think carefully about your ways."
8"Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it, and I will be glorified," says the LORD.
9"You looked for much, and look, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts. "Because my house lies in ruins, while each of you runs to his own house."
10So the sky above you holds back its dew, and the earth holds back its fruit.
11"And I called for a drought on the land, and on the mountains, and on the corn, and on the new wine, and on the oil, and on what the ground brings forth, and on people, and on cattle, and on all the work of your hands."
12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the rest 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 before the LORD.
13Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, spoke the LORD's message to the people. He said, "I am with you, says the LORD."
14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people. They came and worked 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.