The Return · 520 BC
Chapter 3
Consider Your Ways
Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: ‘Consider your ways.You 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.’
Work on God’s house in had stopped, and nothing more was done until the second year of the reign of , king of . In that year, on the first day of the sixth month, the Lord’s word came through the . It was a message for son of Shealtiel, the governor of , and for son of Jozadak, the .
“This is what the Lord of Armies says: These people are saying, ‘It isn’t time yet. This isn’t the time for the Lord’s house to be built.’”
Then the Lord’s word came through Haggai the prophet again: “Is it time for you to live in your own houses, with their wooden paneling, while this house lies ruined?
“So now this is what the Lord of Armies says: Consider your ways. You have planted a lot, but you harvest only a little. You eat, but it isn’t enough. You drink, but it doesn’t fill you. You put on clothes, but no one is warm. And whoever earns wages puts them into a bag with holes in it.
“This is what the Lord of Armies says: Consider your ways. Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will be pleased with it, and it will bring me glory,” says the Lord.
“You expected a lot, but look: you got only a little. When you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of Armies. “Because my house lies ruined, while each of you is busy with his own house.
“So it is because of you that the sky holds back its dew and the earth holds back its harvest. I called for a drought on the land and on the mountains, on the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, on whatever the ground grows, on people and livestock, and on all the work of their hands.”
Then Zerubbabel, Jeshua the high priest and all the people who were left obeyed what the Lord their God said. They obeyed the words of Haggai the prophet, the one the Lord their God had sent. And the people feared the Lord.
Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, brought the people the Lord’s message: “I am with you,” says the Lord.
The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, the spirit of Jeshua the high priest, and the spirit of all the people who were left. They came and worked on the house of the Lord of Armies, their God. That day was the twenty-fourth of the sixth month, in King Darius’s second year.
Two prophets, Haggai and son of Iddo, spoke to the Jews living in Judah and Jerusalem. They prophesied to them in the name of the God of Israel.
Then Zerubbabel and Jeshua set to work building God’s house in Jerusalem, and God’s prophets were with them, helping them.
In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day, the Lord’s word came through Haggai the prophet. It was a message for Zerubbabel the governor of Judah, for Jeshua the high priest and for the people who were left:
“Is anyone left among you who saw this house in its former glory? What does it look like to you now? Doesn’t it look like nothing to you?
“Still, be strong now, Zerubbabel,” says the Lord. “Be strong, Jeshua the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,” says the Lord, “and work, for I am with you,” says the Lord of Armies. “This is the word I gave you in my when you came out of , and my Spirit lived among you. ‘Don’t be afraid.’
“For this is what the Lord of Armies says: ‘Yet once more, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations. The treasure of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of Armies. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine,’ says the Lord of Armies. ‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of Armies; ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of Armies.”
In the second year of Darius, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the Lord’s word came through Haggai the prophet: “This is what the Lord of Armies says: Take this question about the law to the . Ask them, ‘If someone is carrying meat in a fold of his clothes, and that fold touches bread, stew, wine, oil or any other food, will the food become holy?’”
The priests answered, “No.”
Then Haggai asked, “And if someone who is because of a dead body touches any of these, will it become unclean?”
“It will be unclean,” the priests answered.
Then Haggai said, “These people are like that, and this nation is like that in my sight,” says the Lord, “and so is everything they do with their hands. Whatever they offer there is unclean.
“Now, please, think back from this day to the time before a stone was laid on a stone in the Lord’s temple. All through that time, someone would come to a heap of twenty measures and find only ten. Someone would come to the wine vat to draw out fifty and find only twenty. I struck you with blight and mildew, which spoil crops, and with hail, in everything you worked at. And still you didn’t turn to me,” says the Lord.
“Please think back from this day, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Consider it. Is the seed still in the barn? Even the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree haven’t produced anything. From today I will bless you.”
On the twenty-fourth day of the month, the Lord’s word came to Haggai the second time. It was a message for Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah:
“I will shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the nations’ kingdoms. I will overturn the chariots and the people riding in them. The horses and their riders will fall, each one by his brother’s sword.
“On that day,” says the Lord of Armies, “I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel,” says the Lord, “and will make you like a , for I have chosen you,” says the Lord of Armies.