¹⁰ Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food^(A) will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.^{(B) 11} You will be enriched^(C) in every way so that you can be generous^(D) on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.^(E)

⁶ You have planted much, but harvested little.^(A) You eat, but never have enough.^(B) You drink, but never have your fill.^(C) You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages,^(D) only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

⁷ This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought^(E) to your ways. ⁸ Go up into the mountains and bring down timber^(F) and build my house, so that I may take pleasure^(G) in it and be honored,^(H)” says the Lord. ⁹ “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little.^(I) What you brought home, I blew^(J) away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin,^(K) while each of you is busy with your own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld^(L) their dew^(M) and the earth its crops.^{(N) 11} I called for a drought^(O) on the fields and the mountains,^(P) on the grain, the new wine,^(Q) the olive oil^(R) and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.^(S)”

Generosity Encouraged

⁶ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.^(A)

¹¹ But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past,”^(A) declares the Lord Almighty.

¹² “The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit,^(B) the ground will produce its crops,^(C) and the heavens will drop their dew.^(D) I will give all these things as an inheritance^(E) to the remnant of this people.^(F)

³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests^(A) a crop for eternal life,^(B) so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’^(C) is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

¹⁷ I struck all the work of your hands^(A) with blight,^(B) mildew and hail,^(C) yet you did not return^(D) to me,’ declares the Lord.^{(E) 18} ‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought^(F) to the day when the foundation^(G) of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: ¹⁹ Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate^(H) and the olive tree have not borne fruit.^(I)

“‘From this day on I will bless^(J) you.’”