Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but are not satisfied; ye drink, but are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages for a bag with holes.

“You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. “Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

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.

'Who is left among you, that saw this house in her first beauty? But what think ye now by it? Is it not in your eyes, even as though it were nothing?

But now be strong, Zerubbabel, saith Jehovah; and be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith Jehovah, and work: for I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts.

But now, please {consider} from this day forward, before one stone was placed on another in the temple of Yahweh,

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.

And I sent burning and wasting and a rain of ice-drops on all the works of your hands; but still you were not turned to me, says the Lord.

is not the seed yet in the barn? Have not the vines, the fig trees, the pomegranates and the olive trees been yet unfruitful? But from this day forth, I shall make them to prosper."