1   In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2   These are the words of the Lord of Hosts: This nation says to itself that it is not yet time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt. 3   Then this word came through Haggai the prophet: 4   Is it a time for you to live in your own well-roofed houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5   Now these are the words of the Lord of Hosts: Consider your way of life. 6   You have sown much but reaped little; you eat but never as much as you wish, you drink but never more than you need, you are clothed but never warm, and the labourer puts his wages into a purse with a hole in it. 7   These are the words of the Lord of Hosts: Consider your way of life. 8   Go up into the hills, fetch timber, and build a house acceptable to me, where I can show my glory, ^note says the Lord. 9   You look for much and get little. At the moment when you would bring home the harvest, I blast it. Why? says the Lord of Hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while each of you has a house that he can run to. 10   It is your fault that the heavens withhold their dew and the earth its produce. 11   So I have proclaimed a drought against land and mountain, against corn, new wine, and oil, and all that the ground yields, against man and cattle and all the products of man's labour.

12   Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the rest of the people listened to what the Lord their God had said and what the prophet Haggai said when the Lord their God sent him, and they were filled with fear because of the Lord. ^note 13   So Haggai the Lord's messenger, as the Lord had commissioned him, said to the people: I am with you, says the Lord. 14   Then the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and of the rest of the people; they came and began work on the house of the Lord of Hosts their God on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

Zerubbabel restorer of the temple

1   In the second year of King Darius, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, these words came from the Lord through the prophet Haggai: 2   Say to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the rest of the people: 3   Is there anyone still among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it appear to you now? Does it not seem to you as if it were not there? 4   But now, Zerubabbel, take heart, says the Lord; take heart, Joshua son of Jehozadak, high priest. Take heart, all you people, says the Lord. Begin the work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Hosts, ^note and my spirit is present among you. 5    6   Have no fear. For these are the words of the Lord of Hosts: One thing more: ^note I will shake heaven and earth, 7   sea and land, I will shake all nations; the treasure of all nations shall come hither, and I will fill this house with glory; ^note so says the Lord of Hosts. 8   Mine is the silver and mine the gold, says the Lord of Hosts, 9   and the glory ^note of this latter house shall surpass the glory ^note of the former, says the Lord of Hosts. In this place will I grant prosperity and peace. This is the very word of the Lord of Hosts.

10   In the second year of Darius, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, this word came from the Lord to the prophet Haggai: 11   These are the words of the Lord of Hosts: Ask the priests to give their ruling: If a man is carrying consecrated flesh in a fold of his robe, 12   and he lets the fold touch bread or broth or wine or oil or any other kind of food, will that also become consecrated? 13   And the priests answered, ‘No.’ Haggai went on, But if a person defiled by contact with a corpse touches any one of these things, will that also become defiled? ‘It will’, answered the priests. 14   Haggai replied, So it is with this people and nation and all that they do, says the Lord; whatever offering they make here is defiled in my sight. 15   And now look back over recent times down to this day: before one stone was laid on another in the Lord's temple, 16   what was your plight? If a man came to a heap of corn expecting twenty measures, he found but ten; if he came to a wine-vat to draw fifty measures, ^note he found but twenty. 17   I blasted you and all your harvest with black blight and red and with hail, and yet you had no mind to return to me, says the Lord. 18   Consider, from this day onwards, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day when the foundations of the temple of the Lord are laid, consider: 19   will the seed still be diminished ^note in the barn? Will the vine and the fig, the pomegranate and the olive, still bear no fruit? Not so, from this day I will bless you.

20   On that day, the twenty-fourth day of the month, the word of the Lord came to Haggai a second time: 21   Tell Zerubbabel, governor of

Zerubbabel restorer of the temple Judah, I will shake heaven and earth; 22   I will overthrow the thrones of kings, break the power of heathen realms, overturn chariots and their riders; horses and riders shall fall by the sword of their comrades. 23   On that day, says the Lord of Hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, and will wear you as a signet-ring; for you it is that I have chosen. This is the very word of the Lord of Hosts.

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