A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Haggai 1
Haggai 1 is the opening chapter of the thirty-seventh book of the Bible. The 15-verse chapter records the prophet's first oracle, which prompts the post-exile community in Jerusalem to resume work on the unfinished temple.
The chapter opens with a precise date: the first day of the sixth month of the second year of the Persian king Darius, which works out to August 29, 520 BC. Haggai delivers his message to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest.
The message addresses a specific situation. The Jewish exiles have been back in Jerusalem for about sixteen years. They began rebuilding the temple early on but stopped under pressure from neighbors. The foundations have sat exposed while the people have built their own houses. They have been saying that the time has not yet come to rebuild the temple.
Haggai's reply is sharp. Is it really time for them to live in paneled houses while God's house lies in ruins? Their harvests have been poor. They eat without being satisfied. They drink without being filled. They earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes. All of this, Haggai says, is because they have neglected the temple.
The people respond. Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the remnant of the people obey the voice of the Lord and fear him. Twenty-three days later, on the twenty-fourth day of the same month, work on the temple resumes. The chapter closes with God's brief assurance: "I am with you."
Verse 1. In the second year of the reign of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, stating
Verse 2. that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.’”
Verse 3. Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet, saying:
Verse 4. “Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?”
Verse 5. Now this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
Verse 6. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
Verse 7. This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Consider carefully your ways.
Verse 8. Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the LORD.
Verse 9. You expected much, but behold, it amounted to little. And what you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the LORD of Hosts. Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
Verse 10. Therefore, on account of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth has withheld its crops.
Verse 11. I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Verse 12. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.
Verse 13. Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, delivered the message of the LORD to the people: “I am with you,” declares the LORD.
Verse 14. So the LORD stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as the spirit of all the remnant of the people. And they came and began the work on the house of the LORD of Hosts, their God,
Verse 15. on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.
Last updated: