A Call to Rebuild the Temple

Haggai 1

In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of YHWH came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying: “This is what YHWH of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time has not yet come, the time to rebuild the house of YHWH.’”

Then the word of YHWH came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is it a time for y’all to dwell in y’all’s paneled houses, while this house lies waste? Now therefore this is what YHWH Almighty says: ‘Y’all must think carefully about y’all’s ways. Y’all have planted much, but bring in little. Y’all eat, but don’t have enough. Y’all drink, but aren’t not enough to be tipsy. Y’all clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. The one who earns wages puts them into a bag with holes.’

“This is what YHWH Almighty says: ‘Y’all must think carefully about y’all’s ways. Y’all go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says YHWH. “Y’all expected much, but it came to little, and when y’all brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says YHWH Almighty, “Because my house lies in waste while each of y’all is busy with their own house. Therefore because of y’all the heavens have withheld their dew, and the earth has withheld its fruit. I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”

The People Respond to the Call

Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed YHWH their God’s voice, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as YHWH their God had sent him; and the people feared YHWH.

Then Haggai, YHWH’s messenger, spoke YHWH’s message to the people, saying, “‘I am with y’all,’ this is the declaration of YHWH.”

YHWH 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 worked on the house of YHWH Almighty, their God, in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.