⁶ In the morning sow your seed, and at evening ^(A)withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

¹⁰ He who supplies ^(A)seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and ^(B)increase the harvest of your righteousness. ^11 (C)You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which ^(D)through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

^6 (A)You have sown much, and harvested little. ^(B)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 ^(C)earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

⁷ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^(D)Consider your ways. ⁸ Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that ^(E)I may take pleasure in it and that ^(F)I may be glorified, says the Lord. ^9 (G)You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, ^(H)I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house ^(I)that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore ^(J)the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. ¹¹ And ^(K)I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on ^(L)the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and ^(M)on all their labors.”

The Cheerful Giver

⁶ The point is this: ^(A)whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully^[a] will also reap bountifully.

¹¹ But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, declares the Lord of hosts. ^12 (A)For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, ^(B)and the heavens shall give their dew. ^(C)And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.

³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that ^(A)sower and ^(B)reaper ^(C)may rejoice together. ³⁷ For here the saying holds true, ^(D)‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap ^(E)that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, ^(F)and you have entered into their labor.”

^17 (A)I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, ^(B)yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. ^18 (C)Consider from this day onward, ^(D)from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since ^(E)the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid, ^(F)consider: ^19 (G)Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on ^(H)I will bless you.”