The Lord who rules over all says this: "These people have said, 'The time for rebuilding the Lord's temple has not yet come.'"

So the Lord spoke through the prophet Haggai as follows:

Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, spoke the Lord's word to the people: "I am with you!" says the Lord.

So the Lord energized and encouraged Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the whole remnant of the people. They came and worked on the temple of their God, the Lord who rules over all.

Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? How does it look to you now? Isn't it nothing by comparison?

Even so, take heart, Zerubbabel,' says the Lord. 'Take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you citizens of the land,' says the Lord, 'and begin to work. For I am with you,' says the Lord who rules over all.

Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says: 'In just a little while I will once again shake the sky and the earth, the sea and the dry ground.

Then Haggai responded, "'The people of this nation are unclean in my sight,' says the Lord. 'And so is all their effort; everything they offer is also unclean.

Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, before one stone was laid on another in the Lord's temple.