A Call to Rebuild the Temple

1Thus saith the Lord Almighty, saying, This people say, The time is not come to build the house of the Lord. 2And the word of the Lord came by the hand of the prophet Aggaeus, saying, 3Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses, whereas our house is desolate? 4And now thus saith the Lord Almighty; Consider your ways, I pray you. 5Ye have sown much, but brought in little; ye have eaten, and are not satisfied; ye have drunk, and are not satisfied with drink, ye have clothed yourselves, and have not become warm thereby: and he that earns wages has gathered them into a bag full of holes. 6Thus saith the Lord Almighty; Consider your ways.

7Go up to the mountain, and cut timber; build the house, and I will take pleasure in it, and be glorified, saith the Lord. 8Ye looked for much, and there came little; and it was brought into the house, and I blew it away. Therefore thus saith the Lord Almighty, Because my house is desolate, and ye run everyone into his own house; 9therefore shall the sky withhold dew, and the earth shall keep back her produce. 10And I will bring a sword upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the wine, and upon the oil, and all that the earth produces, and upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon all the labours of their hands. 11And Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Juda, and Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of the prophet Aggaeus, according as the Lord their God had sent him to them, and the people feared before the Lord.

The People Obey

12And Aggaeus the Lord's messenger spoke among the messengers of the Lord to the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord. 13And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zorobabel the son of Salathiel, of the tribe of Juda, and the spirit of Jesus the son of Josedec, the high priest, and the spirit of the remnant of all the people; and they went in, and wrought in the house of the Lord Almighty their God, 14on the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. 15In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the Lord spoke by Aggaeus the prophet, saying,