1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of the prophet Haggai, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, of the tribe of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2 Thus saith the Lord Almighty, saying, This people say, The time is not come to build the house of the Lord. 3 And the word of the Lord came by the hand of the prophet Haggai, saying,

4 Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses, whereas our house is desolate?

5 And now thus saith the Lord Almighty; Consider your ways, I pray you. 6 Ye have sown much, but brought in little; ye have eaten, and are not satisfied; ye have drunk, and are not satisfied with drink, ye have clothed yourselves, and have not become warm thereby: and he that earns wages has gathered them into a bag full of holes.

7 Thus saith the Lord Almighty; Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the mountain, and cut timber; build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and be glorified, saith the Lord. 9 Ye looked for much, and there came little; and it was brought into the house, and I blew it away. Therefore thus saith the Lord Almighty, Because my house is desolate, and ye run every one into his own house; 10 therefore shall the sky withhold dew, and the earth shall keep back her produce. 11 And I will bring a sword upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and all that the earth produces, and upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon all the labors of their hands.

12 And Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, of the tribe of Judah, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of the prophet Haggai, according as the Lord their God had sent him to them, and the people feared before the Lord. 13 And Haggai the Lord’s messenger spoke among the messengers of the Lord to the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.

14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, of the tribe of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of all the people; and they went in, and wrought in the house of the Lord Almighty their God, 15 on the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.