The Commission to Rebuild the Temple
1In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of[†]Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,2“Thus says Yahweh of[†]hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come,even the time for the house of Yahweh to be rebuilt.”’”3Then the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying,4“Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this houselies waste?”5So now, thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heartto consider your ways!6You have sown much, but bring in little;you eat, butthere is notenough to be satisfied;you drink, butthere is[†]notenough to become drunk;you put on clothing, but no one is warmenough; and he who earns, earns wagesto put into a bag with holes.”
7Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heartto consider your ways!8Go up to the[†]mountains and bring wood and rebuild the houseof God, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says Yahweh.9“You look for much, but behold,it comes to little; and you bringit home, and I blow itaway. Why?” declares Yahweh of hosts, “Because of My house whichlies waste, while each of you runs to his own house.10Therefore, because of you the sky has restrained[†]its dew and the earth has restrained its produce.11And I called for a[†]drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of[†]your hands.”
12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, listened to the voice of Yahweh their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Yahweh their God had sent him. And the people feared Yahweh.13Then Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, spoke by the commissioned message of Yahweh to the people saying, “‘I am with you,’ declares Yahweh.”14So Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work on the house of Yahweh of hosts, their God,15on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.
1 The personal covenant name of God, a form of I AM WHO I AM, cf. Ex 3:14-15
2 Lit
hosts, saying6 Lit
not becoming drunk8 Lit
mountain10 Lit
from dew11 Or
waste, cf. 1:4, 9
11 Lit
the palms