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 by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high Priest, saying, 2"Thus the LORD of hosts speaks, saying, 'This people says, "The time has not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built." 3Then came the Word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4"Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your finished houses, and shall this My house lie waste?" 5And now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways. 6You have sown much, but bring in little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you dress, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes."

7Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways. 8Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build this house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified," says the LORD. 9"You looked for much, and behold, it came to little! And when you brought it home, then I blew on it. Why?" says the LORD of hosts."Because of My house that is waste, and you, each man runs to his own house. 10Therefore the heavens above you have held back the dew, and the earth has held back its fruit. 11And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon livestock, and upon all the labor of your hands."

12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared before the LORD. 13Then Haggai, the LORD'S messenger, spoke the message of the LORD to the people, saying, " '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 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 of hosts, their God, 15In the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.