The Commission to Rebuild the Temple

1In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of [†]Yahweh came by the hand of 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 says Yahweh of [†]hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of Yahweh to be rebuilt.”’” 3Then the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying, 4“Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this house lies waste?” 5So now, thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heart to consider your ways! 6You have sown much, but bring in little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is [†]not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

7Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heart to consider your ways! 8Go up to the [†]mountains and bring wood and rebuild the house of God, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says Yahweh. 9“You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; and you bring it home, and I blow it away. Why?” declares Yahweh of hosts, “Because of My house which lies waste, while each of you runs to his own house. 10Therefore, because of you the sky has restrained [†]its dew and the earth has restrained its produce. 11And I called for a [†]drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on men, on cattle, and on 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, listened to the voice of Yahweh their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Yahweh their God had sent him. And the people feared Yahweh. 13Then Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, spoke by the commissioned message of Yahweh to the people saying, “‘I am with you,’ declares Yahweh.” 14So Yahweh 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 did work on the house of Yahweh of hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.