The Command to Rebuild the Temple
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1In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to 2Zerubbabel the son of 3Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to 4Joshua the son of 5Jehozadak, the high priest:
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"Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD."
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7"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while 8this house lies in ruins?
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10You have sown much, and harvested little. 11You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who 12earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
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Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that 14I may take pleasure in it and that 15I may be glorified, says the LORD.
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16You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, 17I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house 18that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.
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And 20I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on 21the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and 22on all their labors."
The People Obey the Lord
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23Then 24Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and 25Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all 26the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared the LORD.
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Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, 27"I am with you, declares the LORD."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)