Haggai 2:10–23

A Rebuke and a Promise

¹⁰On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai, saying: ¹¹“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask the priests for a ruling:^{* 12}If one carries consecrated meat in the fold of one’s garment and with the fold touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy?” The priests answered, “No.”^{* 13}Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered, “Yes, it becomes unclean.”^{* 14}Haggai then said, “So is it with this people and with this nation before me, says the Lord, and so with every work of their hands; what they offer there is unclean.^{* 15}But now, consider what will come to pass from this day on. Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the Lord’s temple,^{* 16}how did you fare?^b When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.^{* 17}I struck you and every work of your hands with blight and mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me, says the Lord.^{* 18}Consider from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider:^{* 19}Is there any seed left in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on I will bless you.”

God’s Promise to Zerubbabel

²⁰The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month: ²¹“Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: I am about to shake the heavens and the earth^{* 22}and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations and overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade.^{* 23}On that day, says the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the Lord of hosts.”^*