Thus spake Jehovah of Hosts, saying: This people! -- they have said, 'The time hath not come, The time the house of Jehovah is to be built.'

And there is a word of Jehovah by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying:

Is it time for you -- you! To dwell in your covered houses, And this house to lie waste?

Ye have sown much, and brought in little, To eat, and not to satiety, To drink, and not to drunkenness, To clothe, and none hath heat, And he who is hiring himself out, Is hiring himself for a bag pierced through.

Looking for much, and lo, little, And ye brought it home, and I blew on it, Wherefore? -- an affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, Because of My house that is waste, And ye are running -- each to his house,

And Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Josedech, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, do hearken to the voice of Jehovah their God, and unto the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him, and the people are afraid of the face of Jehovah.

Who among you hath been left that saw this house in its former honour? And what are ye seeing it now? Is it not, compared with it, as nothing in your eyes?

The thing that I covenanted with you, In your coming forth from Egypt, And My Spirit is remaining in your midst, fear not.

For thus said Jehovah of Hosts: Yet once more -- it is a little, And I am shaking the heavens and the earth, And the sea, and the dry land,

Mine is the silver, and Mine the gold, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts.

Greater is the honour of this latter house, Than of the former, said Jehovah of Hosts, And in this place do I give peace, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts.'

Lo, one doth carry holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and he hath come with his skirt against the bread, or against the pottage, or against the wine, or against the oil, or against any food -- is it holy?' And the priests answer and say, 'No.'

And Haggai saith, 'If the unclean of body doth come against any of these, is it unclean?' And the priests answer and say, 'It is unclean.'

And Haggai answereth and saith, 'So is this people, and so is this nation before Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah -- and so is every work of their hands, and that which they bring near there -- it is unclean.

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? And hitherto the vine and the fig, And the pomegranate, and the olive-tree, Have not borne -- from this day I bless.'

And there is a word of Jehovah a second time unto Haggai, on the twenty and fourth of the month, saying:

In that day -- an affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, I take thee, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant -- an affirmation of Jehovah, And have set thee as a signet, for on thee I have fixed, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts!