Section XCIV.  THE REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE

[Sidenote:  Hag. 1:1-6] In the second year of Darius the king, in the first day of the sixth month, this word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet:  Speak to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, saying, ’Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, “This people say:  The time has not yet come to rebuild the temple of Jehovah."’ Then this word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet:  Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your own ceiled houses, while this temple lies in ruins?  Now therefore, thus saith Jehovah of hosts, ’Consider your past experiences.  Ye sow much, but bring in little; ye eat, but ye do not have enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled; ye clothe yourselves, but not so as to be warm; and he who earneth wages, earneth wages in a bag with holes.’

[Sidenote:  Hag. 1:7-11] Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, ’Consider your experiences.  Go up to the mountains, and bring wood and rebuild the temple; then I will be pleased with it, and I will reveal my glory,’ saith Jehovah.  ’Ye looked for much, and it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I blew upon it.  Why?’ saith Jehovah of hosts.  ’Because of my temple that lieth in ruins, while ye are running each to his own house.  Therefore the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit.  And I have called forth a drought upon the land and upon the mountains, and upon the grain and the new wine and the oil and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men and animals, and upon all the labor of the hands.’

[Sidenote:  Hag. 1:12-15a] Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Joshua the son of Jehozadak the high priest, with all the rest of the people, obeyed the command of Jehovah their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him to them.  The people also feared before Jehovah.  And Jehovah 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 rest of the people, so that they came and worked on the temple of Jehovah of hosts, their God, in the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

[Sidenote:  Hag. 1:15b-2:5] In the second year of Darius the king, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, this word from Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet:  Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, saying, ’Who is left among you that saw this temple in its former glory? and how do you see it now?  Is it not in your eyes as nothing?  Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ is the oracle of Jehovah; ’and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and be strong, all ye people of the land,’ is the oracle of Jehovah, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ is the oracle of Jehovah of hosts, ‘and my spirit abideth in your midst; fear not.’