In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, this word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
Thus said the LORD of Hosts: These people say, “The time has not yet come for rebuilding the House of the LORD.”
And the word of the LORD through the prophet Haggai continued:
Is it a time for you to dwell in your paneled houses, while this House is lying in ruins?
Now thus said the LORD of Hosts: Consider how you have been faring!
You have sowed much and brought in little; you eat without being satisfied; you drink without getting your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one gets warm; and he who earns anything earns it for a leaky purse.
Thus said the LORD of Hosts: Consider how you have fared:
Go up to the hills and get timber, and rebuild the House; then I will look on it with favor and I will be glorified—said the LORD.
You have been expecting much and getting little; and when you brought it home, I would blow on it! Because of what?—says the LORD of Hosts. Because of My House which lies in ruins, while you all hurry to your own houses!
That is why the skies above you have withheld [their] moisture and the earth has withheld its yield,
and I have summoned fierce heat upon the land—upon the hills, upon the new grain and wine and oil, upon all that the ground produces, upon man and beast, and upon all the fruits of labor.
Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak and all the rest of the people gave heed to the summons of the LORD their God and to the words of the prophet Haggai, when the LORD their God sent him; the people feared the LORD.
And Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, fulfilling the LORD’s mission, spoke to the people, “I am with you—declares the LORD.”
Then the LORD roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the rest of the people: They came and set to work on the House of the LORD of Hosts, their God,
on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. In the second year of King Darius,