Haggai 1

1In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying, 'Speak to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, from the tribe of Judah, and Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, this message.

2'Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'This people says, 'The time has not come to build the Lord's house.' ' ' '

3Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4'Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house stands in ruins?'

5Now therefore, thus says the Lord Almighty: 'Consider your ways!

6You have sown much and brought in little. You have eaten, but you are not satisfied. You have drunk, but not to get drunk. You have clothed yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.'

7Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'Carefully consider your ways!

8Go up to the mountain and cut wood and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it and be glorified,' says the Lord.

9Thus says the Lord Almighty: 'You looked for much, but little came, and when it was brought into the house I blew it away, because My house is desolate while each one of you hurries to his own house;

10because of this the heavens above you will withhold the dew, and the earth withhold its fruit.

11And I shall bring a sword upon the land and upon the mountains, and upon the grain and upon the wine and upon the oil, and upon whatever the ground brings forth, and on men and livestock, and on all the labor of their hands.'

12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel from the tribe of Judah, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, heeded the word of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him to them, and the people feared in the presence of the Lord.

13Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, said these words to the people: 'I am with you, says the Lord.'

14So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel from the tribe of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and worked on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,

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