On the first day of the sixth month of the second year of the reign of King Darius, this message from the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Shealtiel's son Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and to Jehozadak's son Joshua, the high priest:

Then this message from the LORD came by Haggai the prophet:

Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

Moreover, I have called for a drought that will affect the fields, the hill country, the grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, and everything that grows from the ground; it also will harm people, animals, and everything they produce.'"

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people [who had returned from exile], listened carefully and obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, since the Lord their God had sent him. And the people [reverently] feared the Lord.

Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with a special commission from the LORD: ""I am with you,' declares the LORD."

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, this message from the LORD came by Haggai the prophet:

"Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? And what does it look like now? From what you can see, it seems like nothing, doesn't it?

The thing that I covenanted with you, In your coming forth from Egypt, And My Spirit is remaining in your midst, fear not.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of the second year of the reign of King Darius, this message from the LORD came to Haggai the prophet:

Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean from contact with a corpse touches any of these, will it become unclean?" The priests answered, "Yes, it will be become unclean."

And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:

From that time one hath come to a heap of twenty, And it hath been ten, He hath come unto the wine-fat to draw out fifty purahs, And it hath been twenty.

Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD'S temple was laid, consider it.

Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.

This message from the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month: