¹ In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest as follows,

² 'Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of Yahweh." '

³ (And the word of Yahweh was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows,)

⁴ 'Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses, when this House lies in ruins?

⁵ So now, Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Think carefully about your behaviour.

⁶ You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but feel no warmth. The wage-earner gets his wages only to put them in a bag with a hole in it."

⁷ Yahweh Sabaoth says this, "Think carefully about your behaviour.

⁸ Go up into the hills, fetch timber and rebuild the House; and I shall take pleasure in it and manifest my glory there -- Yahweh says.

⁹ The abundance you expected proved to be little. When you brought the harvest in, I blasted it. And why? - Yahweh Sabaoth declares. Because while my House lies in ruins, each of you is busy with his own house.

¹⁰ That is why the sky has withheld the rain and the earth withheld its yield.

¹¹ I have called down drought on land and hills, on grain, on new wine, on olive oil and on all the produce of the ground, on humans and animals and all your labours." '

¹² Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and the entire remnant of the people, paid attention to the voice of Yahweh their God and to the words of the prophet Haggai, which Yahweh their God had sent him to deliver. And the people were filled with fear before Yahweh.

¹³ Haggai, the messenger of Yahweh, then passed on Yahweh's message to the people, 'I am with you -- declares Yahweh.'

¹⁴ And Yahweh roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah, the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and the spirit of the entire remnant of the people; they came and set to work in the Temple of Yahweh Sabaoth, their God.

¹⁵ This was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. In the second year of King Darius,

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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