The Book of the Prophet Haggai 1 Haggai rebukes the people for their inertia and exhorts them to rebuild the temple.

 The Book of the Prophet Haggai 1

Haggai rebukes the people for their inertia and exhorts them to rebuild the temple.

1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying:

2 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘These people say, “The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.”’”

3 Then the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai:

4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.

6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough; You drink, but you are not satisfied; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages for a bag with holes.

7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.

8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house, and I will take pleasure in it; and I will be glorified, says the Lord.

9 You looked for much, but behold, you obtained little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts: Because of my house, which lies in ruins, while each of you runs to his own house.

10 Therefore the heavens withhold their dew, and the earth withholds its produce.

11 And I brought drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine; and on the oil, and on what the ground produces, and on men, and on animals, and on all the work of their hands.

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people listened to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the Lord.

13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, spoke to the people according to the Lord’s message, saying, “I am with you, declares the Lord.”

14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of all the people, and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God.

15 On the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the