The challenge to rebuild
1 The Lord’s word came through Haggai the prophet in the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month on the first day of the month, to Judah’s governor Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and to the high priest Joshua, Jehozadak’s son:
2 This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says:
These people say, “The time hasn’t come,
the time to rebuild the Lord’s house.”
3 Then the Lord’s word came through Haggai the prophet:
4 Is it time for you to dwell in your own paneled houses
while this house lies in ruins?
5 So now, this is what the Lord of heavenly forces says:
Take your ways to heart.
6 You have sown much, but it has brought little.
You eat, but there’s not enough to satisfy.
You drink, but not enough to get drunk.
There is clothing, but not enough to keep warm.
Anyone earning wages puts those wages into a bag with holes.
7 This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says:
Take your ways to heart.
8 Go up to the highlands and bring back wood.
Rebuild the temple so that I may enjoy it
and that I may be honored, says the Lord.
9 You expect a surplus, but look how it shrinks.
You bring it home, and I blow it away, says the Lord of heavenly forces,
because my house lies in ruins.
But all of you hurry to your own houses.
10 Therefore, the skies above you have withheld the dew,
and the earth has withheld its produce because of you.
11 I have called for drought on the earth,
on the mountains, on the grain,
on the wine, on the olive oil,
on that which comes forth from the fertile ground,
on humanity, on beasts,
and upon everything that handles produce.
12 Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and the high priest Joshua, Jehozadak’s son, along with all who remained among the people, listened to the voice of the Lord God and to the words of Haggai the prophet because the Lord their God sent him. Then the people feared the Lord.
13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave the Lord’s message to the people:
I am with you, says the Lord.
14 The Lord moved the spirit of Judah’s governor Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son, and the spirit of the high priest Joshua, Jehozadak’s son, and the spirit of all the rest of the people. Then they came and did work on the house of the Lord of heavenly forces, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.