CHAPTER 1

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the Prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying—

2 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, saying—This people say, “The time is not come to build the house of Jehovah.”

3 Then came the word of Jehovah, By Haggai, the Prophet, saying—

4 “Is it time for you to dwell yourselves in your boarded houses, And this house a waste!”

5 And now thus saith Jehovah of hosts,—Apply your heart to your ways:

6 Ye have sown much, and brought in little; Ye have eaten, and were not satisfied; Ye have drank, and were not replenished; Ye have clothed yourselves, and were not warmed; And he who gains wages, Gains wages for a perforated bag. (330)

7 Thus saith Jehovah of hosts,—Apply your heart to your ways;

8 Ascend unto the mountain and bring wood, And build the house; And I will be to you propitious in it, And glorified shall I be, saith Jehovah. (333)

9 Ye have looked for much, but behold little! And ye brought it home, and I blew on it: Why is this? saith Jehovah; On account of my house, because it is waste, And ye run, each of you to his own house.

10 Therefore restrained over you Are the heavens from dew; And the earth from producing is restrained:

11 Yea, I have called for drought on the land and on the mountains, And on the corn and the wine and the oil, And on everything which the earth produces, on man and on beast, and on every labour of the hands. (338)

12 And Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and all the residue of the people, attended to the voice of Jehovah, their God, and to the words of Haggai, the Prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people feared Jehovah.

13 Then said Haggai, the messenger of Jehovah, according to Jehovah’s message, saying to the people, “With you am I,” saith Jehovah.

14 And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the people; and the came and carried on the work in the Temple of Jehovah of hosts, their God,

15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. ¹⁵⁵¹⁵⁵     What is said in a Note in p. 347 does not apply to what Calvin says. He refers not, as I inadvertently apprehended, to the present division of the chapter, but to that adopted in the Septuagint; for this verse in that version forms the beginning of the next chapter.—Ed.