CHAPTER 1 Dec. 18 
Come and Build God’s House 
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the Word of Yahweh came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for Yahweh’s house to be built’.  3Then the Word of Yahweh came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 4Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses, while this house lies waste? 5Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways. 6You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.  7This is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways. 8Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says Yahweh. 9You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says Yahweh of Armies, Because of My house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10Therefore for your sake the skies withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. 11I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labour of the hands.  12Then Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of Yahweh, their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Yahweh, their God, had sent him; and the people feared Yahweh.  13Then Haggai, Yahweh’s messenger, spoke Yahweh’s message to the people, saying, I am with you, says Yahweh.  14Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remainder of the people; and they came and worked on the house of Yahweh of Armies, their God, 15in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

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