"[Is it] a time for you yourselves to dwell in your houses that have been paneled [while] this house [is] desolate?"

You have sown much but have harvested little. You have eaten without [being] satisfied; {you have drunk without being satiated}; you have worn clothes without [being] warm; the one who earns wages puts it in {a pouch with holes}.'

'You have looked for much, and look! [It came] to little; and [when] you brought [it] home, I blew it [away]. Why?' {declares} Yahweh of hosts. 'Because my house [is] desolate and you [are] running each to your own house!

Therefore, because of you [the] heavens have withheld [the] dew and the earth has withheld its produce.

I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and wild animals, and on {all their labor}.'"

'On that day,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and I will make you a signet ring, for I have chosen you,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts."