Haggai 1

¹ In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the LORD’s word 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,

² “This is what the LORD of Armies says: These people say, ‘The time hasn’t yet come, the time for the LORD’s house to be built.’”

³ Then the LORD’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying,

⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?

⁵ Now therefore this is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Consider your ways.

⁶ You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don’t have enough. You drink, but you aren’t filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it.’

⁷ “This is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Consider your ways.

⁸ Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says the LORD.

⁹ “You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of Armies, “Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.

¹⁰ Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.

¹¹ I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground produces, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands.”

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 LORD their God’s voice, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the LORD.

¹³ Then Haggai, the LORD’s messenger, spoke the LORD’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you,” says the LORD.

¹⁴ The LORD 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 worked on the house of the LORD of Armies, their God,

¹⁵ in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Around Haggai 1

Context

Context for this book is being written. A note appears here only once it names its sources.

AI explanation

About Haggai as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

The people have come home from exile, and they have been busy. They have built their own houses, with paneled walls, and the house of the LORD still lies in ruins. When they are asked about it, they have an answer: “The time hasn’t yet come, the time for the LORD’s house to be built.”

Haggai does not accept it. “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?” He asks them to consider their ways. They have sown much and gathered little, and their wages go into “a bag with holes in it.”

In four short messages he urges them to rebuild, and he promises that God is with them. When the old men recall the first temple, the new one seems to be nothing, and Haggai answers that the glory of this house will be greater than the first.

The people listen. The work begins again.

Background

The four messages are dated precisely to a few months in the year 520 before Christ, under the Persian king Darius. The leaders named are the governor Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, and the high priest Joshua. The events are also told in Ezra 5 and 6. Each message is given as the LORD’s word coming by Haggai the prophet.

How Christians read it

Haggai connects the people’s priorities with their well-being, without turning that into a formula. Christians read the promise of greater glory in the light of Christ, who taught in the rebuilt temple and spoke of his own body as the temple. The book is short, but it shows how a people can be moved by a plain word at the right time.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 21 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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