Haggai, prophesying around 520 B.C.E., yearned for the restoration of the Temple to be completed and called upon the nation to devote itself to this project. He attributed all unprofitable activities to the desire of people to build their own homes while neglecting the House of God.
1-1 In the second year of King Darius, 92 on the first day of the sixth month, this word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest-
2 Thus said the Lord of Hosts- These people say, “The time has not yet come for rebuilding the House of the Lord”….
4 Is it a time for you to dwell in your paneled houses, while this House is lying in ruins?
5 Now thus said the Lord of Hosts- Consider how you have been faring! 6 You have sowed much and brought in little, you eat without being satisfied; you drink without getting your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one gets warm; and he who earns anything earns it for a leaky purse.
7 Thus said the Lord of Hosts- Consider how you have fared- 8 Go up to the hills and get timber, and rebuild the House; then I will look on it with favor and I will be glorified—said the Lord.
9 You have been expecting much and getting little; and when you brought it home, I would blow on it! 93 Because of what?—says the Lord of Hosts. Because of My House which lies in ruins, while you all hurry to your own houses! 10 That is why the skies above you have withheld (their) moisture and the earth has withheld its yield, 11 and I have summoned fierce heat upon the land—upon the hills, upon the new grain and wine and oil, upon all that the ground produces, upon man and beast, and upon all the fruits of labor.
92. 520 B.C.E.
93. That is, I sent a plague against it.