Rebuilding the Temple

8 Now in the second year after their coming to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, ^zZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and ^zJeshua the son of Jozadak made a beginning, together with the rest of their kinsmen, the priests and the Levites and all who had come to Jerusalem from the captivity. They ^aappointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to ^bsupervise the work of the house of the Lord. 9 And ^zJeshua with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together ^bsupervised the workmen in the house of God, along with the ^csons of Henadad and the Levites, their sons and brothers.

10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, ^daccording to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, ^fold men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, 13 so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.

Restore Our Fortunes, O Lord

A Song of ^mAscents.

Adversaries Oppose the Rebuilding

1 Now when ^gthe adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever ^hsince the days of ⁱEsarhaddon king of Assyria ^jwho brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, ^k“You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, ^las King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”

4 Then ^mthe people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build 5 and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

24 Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Rebuilding Begins Anew

1 Now the prophets, ^aHaggai and ^bZechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them.

The Command to Rebuild the Temple

1 ^aIn 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 ^bZerubbabel the son of ^cShealtiel, governor of Judah, and to ^dJoshua the son of ^eJehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came ^fby the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 ^g“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while ^hthis house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: ⁱConsider your ways. 6 ^jYou have sown much, and harvested little. ^kYou 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 ^learns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ⁱConsider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that ^mI may take pleasure in it and that ⁿI may be glorified, says the Lord. 9 ^jYou looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, ^oI blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house ^hthat lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore ^pthe heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And ^qI have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on ^rthe grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and ^son all their labors.”

The People Obey the Lord

12 ^tThen ^uZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and ^uJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all ^vthe 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. 13 Then Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke to the people with the Lord’s message, ^w“I am with you, declares the Lord.” 14 And ^xthe Lord stirred up the spirit of ^uZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of ^yJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all ^zthe remnant of the people. And they came and ^aworked on the house of the Lord of hosts, their God, 15 ^bon the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

3 At the same time ^fTattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and their associates came to them and spoke to them thus: ^g“Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?” 4 They also asked them this:¹ “What are the names of the men who are building this building?” 5 But ^hthe eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until the report should reach Darius and then an answer be returned by letter concerning it.

Tattenai’s Letter to King Darius

6 This is a copy of the letter that ^fTattenai the governor of the province Beyond the River and Shethar-bozenai and his associates, the ⁱgovernors who were in the province Beyond the River, sent to Darius the king. 7 They sent him a report, in which was written as follows: “To Darius the king, all peace. 8 Be it known to the king that we went to the province of Judah, to the house of the great God. It is being built with huge stones, and timber is laid in the walls. This work goes on diligently and prospers in their hands. 9 Then we asked those elders and spoke to them thus: ^g‘Who gave you a decree to build this house and to finish this structure?’ 10 We also asked them their names, for your information, that we might write down the names of their leaders.² 11 And this was their reply to us: ‘We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years ago, ^jwhich a great king of Israel built and ^kfinished. 12 ^lBut because our fathers had angered the God of heaven, he ^mgave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried away the people to Babylonia. 13 ⁿHowever, in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, Cyrus the king made a decree that this house of God should be rebuilt. 14 ^oAnd the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon, these Cyrus the king took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was ^pSheshbazzar, whom he had made governor; 15 and he said to him, “Take these vessels, go and put them in the temple that is in Jerusalem, and let the house of God be rebuilt on its site.” 16 Then this ^pSheshbazzar came and ^qlaid the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from that time until now it has been in building, and it is ^rnot yet finished.’ 17 Therefore, if it seems good to the king, ^slet search be made in the royal archives there in Babylon, to see whether a decree was issued by Cyrus the king for the rebuilding of this house of God in Jerusalem. And let the king send us his pleasure in this matter.”

The Coming Glory of the Temple

1 ^cIn the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet: 2 “Speak now to ^dZerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to ^dJoshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to all the remnant of the people, and say, 3 ^e‘Who is left among you who saw this house ^fin its former glory? How do you see it now? ^gIs it not as nothing in your eyes? 4 Yet now ^hbe strong, O ^dZerubbabel, declares the Lord. ^hBe strong, O ^dJoshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. ^hBe strong, all you people of the land, declares the Lord. ⁱWork, for ^jI am with you, declares the Lord of hosts, 5 ^kaccording to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. ^lMy Spirit remains in your midst. ^mFear not. 6 For thus says the Lord of hosts: ⁿYet once more, in a little while, ^oI will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land. 7 And I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and ^pI will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts. 8 ^qThe silver is mine, and the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. 9 ^rThe latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts. And ^sin this place I will give peace, declares the Lord of hosts.’”

A Call to Return to the Lord

1 In the eighth month, ^ain the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to the prophet ^bZechariah, the son of ^cBerechiah, son of ^dIddo, saying, 2 ^e“The Lord was very angry with your fathers. 3 Therefore say to them, Thus declares the Lord of hosts: ^fReturn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and ^gI will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. 4 ^hDo not be like your fathers, ⁱto whom the former prophets cried out, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, ^fReturn from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But ^jthey did not hear or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. 5 Your fathers, where are they? And ^kthe prophets, do they live forever? 6 ^lBut my words and my statutes, which I commanded ^mmy servants the prophets, did they not ⁿovertake your fathers? So they repented and said, ^o‘As the Lord of hosts purposed to deal with us for ^pour ways and ^pdeeds, so has he dealt with us.’”

Blessings for a Defiled People

10 ^tOn the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, ^uin the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, 11 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ^vAsk the priests about the law: 12 ‘If someone carries ^wholy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?’” The priests answered and said, ^x“No.” 13 Then Haggai said, ^y“If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body ^ztouches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered and said, “It does become unclean.” 14 Then Haggai answered and said, ^a“So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, declares the Lord, and so with every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean. 15 Now then, ^bconsider from this day onward.¹ Before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the Lord, 16 how did you fare? ^cWhen² one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17 ^dI struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail, ^eyet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. 18 ^bConsider from this day onward, ^ffrom the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since ^gthe day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, ^bconsider: 19 ^hIs the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on ⁱI will bless you.”

Zerubbabel Chosen as a Signet

20 The word of the Lord came a second time to Haggai ^fon the twenty-fourth day of the month, 21 “Speak to ^jZerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, ^kI am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22 and ^lto overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and ^moverthrow the chariots and their riders. And the horses and their riders shall go down, ⁿevery one by the sword of his brother. 23 On that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will take you, O ^jZerubbabel ^omy servant, the son of ^pShealtiel, declares the Lord, and make you ^qlike a³ signet ring, ^ofor I have chosen you, declares the Lord of hosts.”

The Decree of Darius

1 Then Darius the king made a decree, and ^tsearch was made in Babylonia, in the house of the archives where the documents were stored. 2 And in Ecbatana, the citadel that is ^uin the province of Media, a scroll was found on which this was written: “A record. 3 In the first year of Cyrus the king, Cyrus the king issued a decree: Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the house be rebuilt, the place where sacrifices were offered, and let its foundations be retained. Its height shall be sixty cubits¹ and its breadth sixty cubits, 4 ^vwith three layers of great stones and one layer of timber. Let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. 5 And also ^wlet the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that is in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be restored and brought back to the temple that is in Jerusalem, each to its place. You shall put them in the house of God.”

6 “Now therefore, ^xTattenai, governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, ^yand your² associates the governors who are in the province Beyond the River, keep away. 7 Let the work on this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. 8 Moreover, ^zI make a decree regarding what you shall do for these elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men in full and without delay from the royal revenue, the tribute of the province from Beyond the River. 9 And whatever is needed—bulls, rams, or sheep for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, or oil, as the priests at Jerusalem require—let that be given to them day by day without fail, 10 that they may offer pleasing sacrifices to the God of heaven ^aand pray for the life of the king and his sons. 11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and ^bhis house shall be made a dunghill. 12 May the God ^cwho has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.”

The Temple Finished and Dedicated

13 Then, according to the word sent by Darius the king, ^xTattenai, the governor of the province Beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai, and their associates did with all diligence what Darius the king had ordered. 14 ^dAnd the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and ^eby decree of Cyrus and ^fDarius and ^gArtaxerxes king of Persia;