[0] This is the exultant city that dwelt secure, that said to herself, "I
am and there is none else." What a desolation she has become, a lair for
wild beasts! Every one who passes by her hisses and shakes his fist. [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 Haggai the prophet to Zerub'babel
the son of She-al'ti-el, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of
Jehoz'adak, the high priest, [2] "Thus says the LORD of hosts: This people
say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD." [3] Then
the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, [4] "Is it a time for you
yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
[5] Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
[6] You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have
enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but
no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag
with holes. [7] "Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
[8] Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take
pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD. [9] You
have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it
home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that
lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house. [10]
Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has
withheld its produce. [11] And I have called for a drought upon the land
and the hills, upon the grain, the new wine, the oil, upon what the ground
brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors." [12] Then
Zerub'babel the son of She-al'ti-el, and Joshua the son of Jehoz'adak, the
high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the
LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God
had sent him; and the people feared before the LORD. [13] Then Haggai, the
messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, "I am
with you, says the LORD." [14] And the LORD stirred up the spirit of
Zerub'babel the son of She-al'ti-el, governor of Judah, and the spirit of
Joshua the son of Jehoz'adak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the
remnant of 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 month, in the sixth
month. In the second year of Darius the king,
