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 that, ye yourselves, should be dwelling in your own paneled houses? and, this house, be in ruins?

Ye have sown much, but have brought in little, have eaten, and not been filled, have drunk, and not been satisfied with drink, have clothed you, and none hath been warm, - and, he that hath hired himself out, hath put his wages into a bag with holes.

Ascend the mountain - and bring in wood and build the house, - that I may be pleased therewith and get myself glory, saith Yahweh.

When ye looked for much, then lo! it came to little, when ye brought it home, then I did blow into it, - Because of what? Demandeth Yahweh of hosts, Because of my house, the which is in ruins, while ye keep running every man to his own house.

Who is there among you that is left, that saw this house, in its former glory? And how do ye see it now? Is it not, in comparison with that, as nothing, in your eyes?

The very thing that I solemnized with you, when ye came forth out of the land of Egypt, That, my spirit abiding in your midst, ye should not fear.

For, thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, Yet once, a little, it is, - and I am shaking the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land;

If a man carry holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and then toucheth with his skirt bread or a cooked dish or wine or oil or any food, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

Then said Haggai, If one who is defiled for a dead person touch any of these, shall it be defiled? And the priests answered and said, It shall be defiled.

So long were things thus, that, on coming unto a heap of twenty, then was it found to be ten, - on coming unto the vat to draw off fifty measures, then were there found to be twenty.

I smote you with blight and with mildew and with hail, in all the work of your hands, - Yet ye did not return unto me, Declareth Yahweh.

Is the seed yet in the store-house? Howbeit, though at present neither, the vine nor the fig-tree nor the pomegranate nor the olive tree, hath brought forth, from this very day, will I bless you.