Haggai Chapter 1
After the people returned from exile, Haggai admonished them to give priority to God and rebuild the temple in the first place, even before they rebuilt their houses.
A Conservative Version
1 : 1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
1 : 2 Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, It is not the time for us to come, the time for Jehovah's house to be built.
1 : 3 Then the word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet, saying,
1 : 4 Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies waste?
1 : 5 Now therefore thus says Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways.
1 : 6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little. Ye eat, but ye have not enough. Ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink. Ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm. And he who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag with holes.
1 : 7 Thus says Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways.
1 : 8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house. And I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, says Jehovah.
1 : 9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little, and when ye brought it home, I blew upon it. Why? says Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lays waste while ye run each man to his own house.
1 : 10 Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.
1 : 11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.
1 : 12 Then 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 Jehovah their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him. And the people feared before Jehovah.
1 : 13 Then Haggai, Jehovah's agent, spoke in Jehovah's message to the people, saying, I am with you, says Jehovah.
1 : 14 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 remnant of the people. And they came and did work on the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God,
1 : 15 in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.