In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, ruler of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

These are the words of the Lord of armies: These people say, The time has not come for building the Lord's house.

For this cause the Lord of armies has said, Give thought to your ways.

Much has been planted, but little got in; you take food, but have not enough; you take drink, but are not full; you are clothed, but no one is warm; and he who gets payment for his work, gets it to put it into a bag full of holes.

This is what the Lord of armies has said: Give thought to your ways.

You were looking for much, and it came to little; and when you got it into your house, I took it away with a breath. Why? says the Lord of armies. Because of my house which is a waste, while every man takes care of the house which is his.

And by my order no rain came on the land or on the mountains or the grain or the wine or the oil or the produce of the earth or on men or cattle or on any work of man's hands.

Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the rest of the people, gave ear to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, because the Lord their God had sent him, and the people were in fear before the Lord.

On the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Who is there still among you who saw this house in its first glory? and how do you see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing?

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

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,

These are the words of the Lord of armies: Put now a point of law to the priests, saying,

If anyone has some holy flesh folded in the skirt of his robe, will bread or soup or wine or oil or any other food be made holy if touched by his skirt? And the priests answering said, No.

How, when anyone came to a store of twenty measures, there were only ten: when anyone went to the wine-store to get fifty vessels full, there were only 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.

Overturning the power of kingdoms; and I will send destruction on the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; by me war-carriages will be overturned with those who are in them; and the horses and the horsemen will come down, everyone by the sword of his brother.