Ye have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm. And he who earns wages earns wages [to put] into a bag with holes.

Go up to the hills and get wood and put up the house; and I will take pleasure in it and be honoured, says the Lord.

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

And now, give thought, looking back from this day to the time before one stone was put on another in the Temple of the Lord:

And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time when the base of the Lord's house was put in its place, give thought to it.