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

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

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

³ ‘Who of you is left who saw this house^(A) in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?^{(B) 4} But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong,^(C) Joshua son of Jozadak,^(D) the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with^(E) you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ⁵ ‘This is what I covenanted^(F) with you when you came out of Egypt.^(G) And my Spirit^(H) remains among you. Do not fear.’^(I)