Time to Build the LORD'S House

1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

2Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built.

3Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4Is it time for you, yourselves, to dwell in your paneled houses, and this house lie in ruins?

5Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

6You have sown much, and bring in little; you eat, but you have not enough; you drink, but you are not filled with drink; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes.

7Thus says the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

8Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says the LORD.

9You looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that is in ruins, and you run every man unto his own house.

10Therefore the heavens over you withholds the dew, and the earth withholds her fruit.

11And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.

The People Obey

12Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, 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 did fear before the LORD.

13Then spoke Haggai the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message unto the people, saying, I am with you, says the LORD.

14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,

15In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.