1In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'This people says, "The time has not come, [even] the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt."'" 3Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4"Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [lies] desolate?" 5Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways! 6"You have sown much, but harvest 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 purse with holes."

7Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways! 8"Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified," says the LORD. 9"[You] look for much, but behold, [it comes] to little; when you bring [it] home, I blow it [away]. Why?" declares the LORD of hosts, "Because of My house which [lies] desolate, while each of you runs to his own house. 10"Therefore, because of you the sky has withheld its dew and the earth has withheld its produce. 11"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 produces, 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, 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 showed reverence for the LORD. 13Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke by the commission of the LORD to the people saying, "'I am with you,' declares the LORD." 14So 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, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.