Thus, speaketh Yahweh of hosts, saying, - This people, have said, Not yet hath come the time for the house of Yahweh to be built.

"[Is it] a time for you yourselves to dwell in your houses that have been paneled [while] this house [is] desolate?"

You have sowed much but have reaped little. You have eaten but don't have enough to become satisfied. You have drunk but don't have enough to become intoxicated. You have clothed yourself but don't have enough to keep warm. And the hired laborer deposits his salary in a bag full of holes!'"

Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways and thoughtfully reflect on your conduct!

Go up the mountain, and ye have brought in wood, And build the house, and I am pleased with it. And I am honoured, said Jehovah.

'You have looked for much, and look! [It came] to little; and [when] you brought [it] home, I blew it [away]. Why?' {declares} Yahweh of hosts. 'Because my house [is] desolate and you [are] running each to your own house!

Wherefore - on your account, have the heavens, held back, dew, - and, the earth, held back her fruit;

And I have called for drought, upon the land and upon the mountains, and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground, bringeth forth, - and upon man, and upon beast, and upon all the labour of the hands.

The agreement which I made with you when you came out of Egypt, and my spirit, are with you still; have no fear.

And I have shaken all the nations, And they have come to the desire of all the nations, And I have filled this house with honour, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

But now, do consider [what will happen] from this day forward: before one stone was placed on another in the temple of the Lord,

from that time when one came to a grain heap expecting twenty measures, there would be only ten; and when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures, there would be only twenty.

I have smitten you with blasting, And with mildew, and with hail -- All the work of your hands, And there is none of you with Me, An affirmation of Jehovah.

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

And have overturned the throne of kingdoms, And I have destroyed the strength of kingdoms of the nations, And overturned chariot and its charioteers, And come down have horses and their riders, Each by the sword of his brother.

On that day,' declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, "I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,' declares the LORD, "and I will set you in place like a signet ring. For I have chosen you,' declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies."