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:

Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.

So the Lord spoke through the prophet Haggai as follows:

And so then, thus says Yahweh of hosts: '{Consider your ways}!

Ye sow much, but ye bring little in; Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled; ye deck yourselves, but ye are not warm; and he that earneth any wage, putteth it in a broken purse.

So says Jehovah of Hosts: Set your heart on your ways.

Go up the mountain and bring wood and build the house so that I may be pleased with it and honored,' says Yahweh.

"You turned away in pursuit of abundance, but look at how little you found! What you did manage to bring home, I blew away! And why?' declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies. "It's because of my house! It lies in ruins while each of you runs off to his own house!

So on your account,
the skies have withheld the dew
and the land its crops.

I called for a drought on the land and the hill country, 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.”

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord.

Then spake Haggai the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the LORD.

So 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,

Say now to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the rest of the people,

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Work! For I am with you”—the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;

I will shake all the nations so that the treasure of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house [with] glory,' says Yahweh of hosts.

"Thus sayeth the LORD God of hosts: Ask the priests concerning the law, and say,

Lo, one doth carry holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and he hath come with his skirt against the bread, or against the pottage, or against the wine, or against the oil, or against any food -- is it holy?' And the priests answer and say, 'No.'

And Haggai saith, 'If the unclean of body doth come against any of these, is it unclean?' And the priests answer and say, 'It is unclean.'

Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.

“Now, reflect back from this day: Before one stone was placed on another in the Lord’s temple,

So long were things thus, that, on coming unto a heap of twenty, then was it found to be ten, - on coming unto the vat to draw off fifty measures, then were there found to be twenty.

I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you didn’t turn to Me”—this is the Lord’s declaration.

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.

"Say to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: I [am] going to shake the heavens and the earth,

I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overturn chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders will fall, each by his brother’s sword.

On that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you [through the Messiah, your descendant] like a signet ring, for I have chosen you [as the one with whom to renew My covenant to David’s line],’” declares the Lord of hosts.