In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, 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.

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

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 you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

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,

Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit.

I have summoned a drought
on the fields and the hills,
on the grain, new wine, olive oil,
and whatever the ground yields,
on man and beast,
and on all that your hands produce.”

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.

In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month (Oct 17, 520 b.c., the second year of Darius king of Persia), the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai, saying,

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?

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

In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD 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 one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

So Haggai responded, "If someone who is unclean because of contact with a dead body were to touch any of these things, would they become unclean?" The priests responded, "They would be unclean."

Then Haggai answered, “‘So is this people. And so is this nation before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there [on the altar] is unclean [because they who offer it are unclean].

And now, lay it, I pray you, to your heart, From this day, and onwards, Before the laying of stone to stone in the temple of Jehovah.

Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.

I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.

Set it, I pray you, to your heart, from this day and onwards, from the twenty and fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the temple of Jehovah hath been founded, set it to your heart.

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.

On that day,’ declares the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will make you [through the Messiah, your descendant] like a signet ring, for I have chosen you [as the one with whom to renew My covenant to David’s line],’” declares the Lord of hosts.