Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Greatness and the Goodness of God

A Song of Praise. Of David.

The Command to Rebuild the Temple

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet to Zerub′babel the son of She-al′ti-el, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehoz′adak, the high priest, ² “Thus says the Lord of hosts: This people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” ³ Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, ⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ⁵ Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. ⁶ You have sown much, and harvested little; 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 earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.

⁷ “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. ⁸ Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the Lord. ⁹ You have looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. ¹¹ And I have called for a drought upon the land and the hills, upon the grain, the new wine, the oil, upon what the ground brings forth, upon men and cattle, and upon all their labors.”

¹² Then Zerub′babel the son of She-al′ti-el, and Joshua the son of Jehoz′adak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared before the Lord. ¹³ Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, “I am with you, says the Lord.” ¹⁴ And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerub′babel the son of She-al′ti-el, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehoz′adak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, ¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.

The Authority of Jesus Questioned

20 One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up ² and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” ³ He answered them, “I also will ask you a question; now tell me, ⁴ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” ⁵ And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us; for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered that they did not know whence it was. ⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”