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The Commission to Rebuild the Temple

¹ In the ^(C1)second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of ^(F1)Yahweh came by the hand of ^(C2)Haggai the prophet to ^(C3)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, ^(C4)governor of Judah, and to ^(C5)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,² "Thus says Yahweh of ^(F1)hosts, 'This people says, "The time has not come, even the 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 house ^(C1)lies waste?"⁵ So now, thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Set your heart to consider your ways!⁶ "You have ^(C1)sown much, but bring in little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is ^(F1)not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a bag with holes."

⁷ Thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Set your heart to consider your ways!⁸ "Go up to the ^(F1)mountains and bring wood and ^(C1)rebuild the house of God, that I may be ^(C2)pleased with it and be ^(C3)glorified," says Yahweh.⁹ "^(C1)You look for much, but behold, it comes to little; and you bring it home, and I ^(C2)blow it away. Why?" declares Yahweh of hosts, "Because of My house which ^(C3)lies waste, while each of you runs to his own house.¹⁰ "Therefore, because of you the ^(C1)sky has restrained ^(F1)its dew and the earth has restrained its produce.¹¹ "And I called for a ^(F1)(C1)drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on ^(C2)men, on cattle, and on ^(C3)all the labor of ^(F2)your hands."

¹² Then ^(C1)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and ^(C2)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, ^(C3)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 ^(C4)feared Yahweh.¹³ Then Haggai, the ^(C1)messenger of Yahweh, spoke by the commissioned message of Yahweh to the people saying, "'^(C2)I am with you,' declares Yahweh."¹⁴ So Yahweh stirred up the spirit of ^(C1)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, ^(C1)governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the ^(C2)remnant of the people; and they came and ^(C3)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.