Haggai Begins Temple Building

1 In the asecond year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet bHaggai to cZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, dgovernor of Judah, and to eJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

2 “Thus says the Lord of 1hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.” ’ ”

3 Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4 “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house alies desolate?”

5 Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “1Consider your ways!

6 “You have asown much, but 1harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is 2not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes.”

7 Thus says the Lord of hosts, “1Consider your ways!

8 “Go up to the 1mountains, bring wood and arebuild the 2temple, that I may be bpleased with it and be cglorified,” says the Lord.

9 “aYou look for much, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I bblow it away. Why?” declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which clies desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.

10 “Therefore, because of you the asky has withheld 1its dew and the earth has withheld its produce.

11 “I called for a adrought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on bmen, on cattle, and on call the labor of 1your hands.”