“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘These people say, “The time has not come that the Lord’s house (temple) should be rebuilt.”’”

And Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, according as Jehovah their God had sent him, and the people feared before Jehovah.

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

Pay attention from now on to how things used to be before one stone had been laid upon another in the Temple of the LORD.

before those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the vat to draw out fifty press-measures, there were but twenty.