The Commission to Rebuild the Temple

1 In the ^(A)second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of ^[a]Yahweh came by the hand of ^(B)Haggai the prophet to ^(C)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, ^(D)governor of Judah, and to ^(E)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, ² “Thus says Yahweh of ^[b]hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of Yahweh to be rebuilt.”’” ³ Then the word of Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying, ⁴ “Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this house ^(F)lies waste?” ⁵ So now, thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heart to consider your ways! ⁶ You have ^(G)sown much, but bring in little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is ^[c]not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

⁷ Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heart to consider your ways! ⁸ Go up to the ^[d]mountains and bring wood and ^(H)rebuild the house of God, that I may be ^(I)pleased with it and be ^(J)glorified,” says Yahweh. ⁹ “^(K)You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; and you bring it home, and I ^(L)blow it away. Why?” declares Yahweh of hosts, “Because of My house which ^(M)lies waste, while each of you runs to his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you the ^(N)sky has restrained ^[e]its dew and the earth has restrained its produce. ¹¹ And I called for a ^[f](O)drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on ^(P)men, on cattle, and on ^(Q)all the labor of ^[g]your hands.”

¹² Then ^(R)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and ^(S)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, ^(T)listened to the voice of Yahweh their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Yahweh their God had sent him. And the people ^(U)feared Yahweh. ¹³ Then Haggai, the ^(V)messenger of Yahweh, spoke by the commissioned message of Yahweh to the people saying, “‘^(W)I am with you,’ declares Yahweh.” ¹⁴ So Yahweh stirred up the spirit of ^(X)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, ^(Y)governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the ^(Z)remnant of the people; and they came and ^(AA)did work on the house of Yahweh of hosts, their God, ¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.