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Haggai Begins Temple Building

¹ In the ^(C1)second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet ^(C2)Haggai to ^(C3)Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, ^(C4)governor of Judah, and to ^(C5)Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,² "This is what the LORD of armies ^(F1)says: 'This people says, "The time has not come, the time for the house of the LORD to be rebuilt."'"³ Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying,⁴ "Is it time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses while this house remains ^(C1)desolate?"⁵ Now then, the LORD of armies says this: "^(F1)Consider your ways!⁶ "You have ^(C1)sown much, only to ^(F1)harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but there is not enough for ^(F2)anyone to get warm; and the one who earns, earns wages to put into a money bag full of holes."

⁷ The LORD of armies says this: "^(F1)Consider your ways!⁸ "Go up to the ^(F1)mountains, bring wood, and ^(C1)rebuild the ^(F2)temple, that I may be ^(C2)pleased with it and be ^(C3)honored," says the LORD.⁹ "^(C1)You ^(F1)start an ambitious project, but behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I ^(C2)blow it away. Why?" declares the LORD of armies. "It is because of My house which ^(C3)remains desolate, while each of you runs to his own house.¹⁰ "Therefore, because of you the ^(C1)sky has withheld ^(F1)its dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.¹¹ "And I called for a ^(C1)drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on ^(C2)mankind, on cattle, and on ^(C3)all the products of the labor of ^(F1)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)obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, just as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people ^(F1)(C4)showed reverence for the LORD.¹³ Then Haggai, the ^(C1)messenger of the LORD, spoke ^(F1)by the commission of the LORD to the people, saying, "'^(C2)I am with you,' declares the LORD."¹⁴ So the LORD 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)worked on the house of the LORD of armies, their God,¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.