1 The Commission to Rebuild the Temple In the second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of 1:1 The personal covenant name of God, a form of I AM WHO I AM, cf. Ex 3:14-15 Yahweh came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
2 “Thus says Yahweh of 1:2 Lit hosts, saying hosts, ‘This people says, “The time has not come,eventhe 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 houselieswaste?”
5 So now, thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heartto consideryour ways!
6 You have sown much, but bring in little;youeat, butthere isnotenoughto be satisfied;youdrink, butthere is 1:6Lit not becoming drunk notenoughto become drunk;youput on clothing, but no one is warmenough; and he who earns, earns wagesto putinto a bag with holes.”
7 Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Set your heartto consideryour ways!
8 Go up to the 1:8 Lit mountain mountains and bring wood and rebuild the houseof God, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,” says Yahweh.
9 “Youlook for much, but behold,it comesto little; and you bringithome, and I blow itaway. Why?” declares Yahweh of hosts, “Because of My house whichlieswaste, while each of you runs to his own house.
10 Therefore, because of you the sky has restrained 1:10 Lit from dew its dew and the earth has restrained its produce.
11 And I called for a 1:11 Or waste, cf.1:4, 9 drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of 1:11 Lit the palms your hands.”
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, 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 feared Yahweh.
13 Then Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, spoke by the commissioned message of Yahweh to the people saying, “ ‘I am with you,’ declares Yahweh.”
14 So Yahweh 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 Yahweh of hosts, their God,
15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.