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A Call to Rebuild the Temple

(Ezra 5:1-5)

¹ In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak^(a), the high priest, stating² that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’”³ Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet, saying:⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”⁵ Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Think carefully about your ways.⁶ You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”⁷ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Think carefully about your ways.⁸ Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the LORD.⁹ You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.¹⁰ Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops.¹¹ I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and olive oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”

The People Obey

¹² Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.¹³ Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, delivered the LORD’s message to the people, saying: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.¹⁴ So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God,¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.