² This is what the Lord Almighty^(A) says: “These people^(B) say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.^(C)’”

³ Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai:^{(D) 4} “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses,^(E) while this house remains a ruin?^(F)”

⁵ Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought^(G) to your ways. ⁶ You have planted much, but harvested little.^(H) You eat, but never have enough.^(I) You drink, but never have your fill.^(J) You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages,^(K) only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

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