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It is time to build the temple
1 1-2 The Lord spoke his message to Haggai, his prophet.[a] At that time, Darius was king of Persia.[b] He had been king for 1 year and five months. On the first day of the next month, the Lord told Haggai to speak to Zerubbabel, Judah's ruler, and to Joshua, the leader of God's priests. Zerubbabel was the son of Shealtiel. Joshua was the son of Jehozadak. This was the Almighty Lord's message: ‘Judah's people say that this is not the right time to build a temple for me.’
3 The Lord told his prophet Haggai to say this to the people:
4 ‘You people are living in beautiful houses. But my temple is still just a heap of stones! It is time for you to do something about it! 5 I, the Almighty Lord, tell you this: Think carefully about what is happening to you. 6 You plant seeds but not many plants grow to give you food. You never have enough to eat. You drink, but you are still thirsty. You have clothes to wear, but they do not keep you warm. When you receive money for your work, you soon need to spend it. Then you have no money left.
7 The Almighty Lord also says this: Think about how you live your lives. 8 Now go up to the hills to get wood to build my temple again. If you do that, I will be happy. You will worship me there as you should do. 9 You thought that you would get a lot of food from the crops that grow in your fields. But only a few plants grew. When you brought your food home, it quickly disappeared. I blew it away! Why do you think all this happened? It happened because my temple is still a heap of stones. At the same time, you all work hard to build your own houses. I, the Almighty Lord, am telling you this! 10 That is why there has been no rain on your fields. That is why your plants do not grow well. 11 I have stopped the rain, so that your fields and the hills have become dry. Your crops will not grow. There will be no grapes to make wine. You will not have olives to make oil. Nothing will grow in the ground. Your animals will not become fat. People and animals will all hurt. For all your work, you will get nothing.’
The people obey the Lord
12 Zerubbabel and Joshua, the leader of the priests, as well as all the people obeyed the Lord, their God. They were the people that the Lord had brought back to Jerusalem from Babylon. When they heard the message that Haggai spoke to them, they agreed that it was a message from the Lord. As a result, they respected the Lord and they decided to obey him. 13 Haggai, the Lord's prophet, then spoke this message from the Lord: ‘The Lord says, “I am with you.” ’
14 In that way, the Lord gave strength to Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the people who had returned to live in Jerusalem. They decided to work hard to build the temple of their God, the Almighty Lord. 15 They started to work on the 24th day of that same month, in the second year after Darius had become king.
The temple will be beautiful
2 On the 21st day of the seventh month, the Lord spoke again to Haggai, his prophet. 2 The Lord told Haggai that he must speak to Zerubbabel and to Joshua. Shealtiel's son, Zerubbabel, was the ruler of Judah. Jehozadak's son, Joshua was the leader of the priests. The Lord also told Haggai to speak his message to all the people who had returned to live in Jerusalem. The Lord told Haggai to say this to them all:
3 The Lord says, ‘Some of you will remember how beautiful my temple was in past times. Look at it now! It seems nothing like it was before. 4 But now, Zerubbabel, be strong and brave! Joshua too, and all you people who belong here in Judah, be strong and brave! Now begin to work, because I am with you to help you. That is what I, the Almighty Lord, say to you. 5 Do not be afraid. Remember that I made a promise to your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt. I promised them that I would be with them. My Spirit is now with you too.
6 I, the Almighty Lord also tell you this: Soon, I will cause the sky and the whole earth to shake. I will also cause the sea and the land to shake. 7 I will cause people in all the nations of the world to shake with fear. They will come here to offer their valuable gifts. At that time, I will cause my temple to be full of glory. I, the Almighty Lord, tell you this. 8 Yes, all the silver and gold in the world belongs to me. And I promise you this: 9 This new temple will be even more beautiful than the old temple in past times. Here in this place I will bless my people.’ That is what the Almighty Lord says.
The Lord will be good to his people
10 The Lord spoke again to Haggai, his prophet, on the 24th day of the ninth month, in the second year since Darius had become king. This was the Lord's message:
11 The Almighty Lord says, ‘Ask the priests a question about my Law. 12 A person might be carrying some special, holy meat in his clothes. His clothes might then touch some food. It might be bread, or soup, or wine, or oil. If the clothes that hold the holy meat touch any other food, does that other food also become holy?’ The priests replied, ‘No.’
13 Haggai asked the priests another question: ‘If anyone touches a dead body, you know that you become unclean. If an unclean person touches any of these foods, would they also become unclean?’ The priests replied, ‘Yes, those things would be unclean.’
14 So Haggai told them, ‘This is what the Lord says: This nation and its people are just like that. They are unclean. So everything that they do is also unclean. All the gifts that they offer to me are unclean. I could not accept them. 15 Think carefully what life was like before you started again to build the Lord's temple. Do not forget that. 16 In those days, you hoped to get 20 bags of grain from your fields. But you only got ten bags. You hoped to get 50 jars of wine from your grapes. But you only got 20 jars. 17 I sent bad weather and other problems to destroy all your crops. All your hard work came to nothing. But you still did not return to worship me, your Lord. 18 Remember today, the 24th day of the ninth month. You have started again to build my temple. Now you have built its foundation, think about what will happen from today. 19 You have already eaten the crops that you stored. The grapes, figs, pomegranates and olives are not yet ready for you to pick. But after today, I will bless you. You will have many good things.’[c]
20 On the same day, the Lord spoke to Haggai again. He said:
21 ‘Speak to Zerubbabel, the ruler of Judah. Tell him that I will cause the sky and the whole earth to shake. 22 Tell him that I will destroy the power of foreign kings. I will destroy their armies. Their horses and chariots will fall down. Their soldiers will fight against each other. They will kill each other with their swords.
23 But I, the Almighty Lord say this to you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel.[d] You are my servant and I have chosen you. On that special day, I will give to you the authority to rule on my behalf. That is the message of the Almighty Lord.’
God's two servants
11 Someone gave me a stick, like the sticks that people use to measure things. He told me, ‘Go and measure the size of the temple and the altar. Also count the number of people who worship God there. 2 But do not measure the yard that is outside God's house. Do not measure it, because God has given that yard to Gentiles who do not believe in him. They will stamp all over God's own city for 42 months and they will destroy it.
3 I will give authority to my two servants who speak my message clearly. They will tell people my messages for 1,260 days. They will wear rough clothes made from goats' hair.’[a]
4 These servants are the two olive trees and the two lampstands.[b] They stand in front of God who is the Lord of the earth. 5 If anyone tries to hurt them, fire comes out of the servants' mouths. This fire destroys their enemies. Anyone who wants to hurt the two servants must die in this way. 6 These servants of God have authority to shut up the sky. Then there will be no rain during the time that they tell their messages from God. They also have authority to cause the water on earth to become blood. They can cause many different kinds of trouble to happen on the earth. They can do this as often as they want to.
7 When these two servants of God have finished speaking God's messages, a wild animal will attack them. This is the animal that lives in the deep hole.[c] It will come up out of the hole. It will be stronger than the two servants and it will kill them. 8 Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city where people killed their Lord on a cross.[d] This city should be called Sodom or Egypt, because it is as bad as those places.[e]
9 People from everywhere in the world will look at the servants' dead bodies for three and a half days. Those are people from every nation, from every tribe and from every language. They will not agree to bury the bodies. 10 The people who live on the earth will be very happy because the two servants of God are now dead. They will send gifts to each other because they are so happy. These two prophets of God had caused bad trouble for them, but now they have died.
11 But after three and a half days, God breathed life into those dead bodies. They stood up. The people who saw them were very afraid. 12 Then God's two servants heard a loud voice that came from heaven. The voice said, ‘Come up here.’ They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them.[f]
13 At the same time the ground shook with a strong earthquake. One in every ten buildings in the city fell down. 7,000 people died because of the earthquake. The people who were still alive became very afraid. They praised the God of heaven and said that he is very powerful.
14 That is the second great trouble and it has now finished. But the third great trouble will come soon.
The seventh trumpet
15 The seventh angel made a sound with his trumpet. Then there was the sound of loud voices in heaven. They shouted:
‘Our Lord God and his Messiah now have all authority!
The whole world has become their kingdom.
God will rule as King for ever!’
16 The 24 leaders were sitting on their thrones in front of God. Now they threw themselves down on their faces and they worshipped God. 17 They said:
‘We thank you, Lord God, because you have all authority!
You are alive now and you have always been alive.
You have great power and now you have begun to rule the whole world!
18 The nations of the world were very angry.
But now it is time for you to be angry with them.
Now you will judge all the people who have died.
You will give good things to your servants, the prophets,
and to all your people.
You will bless everyone who respects and obeys you,
whether they are important people or not.
But you will destroy all those people who destroy the earth.
The time has now come for all this to happen.’
19 Then the door of the temple in heaven became open. Inside it, I saw God's Covenant Box.[g] There was a great storm with bright lightning and the loud noise of thunder. There was an earthquake and strong rain with stones of ice fell from the sky.
This is a song that David wrote.
It is for the music leader.
God understands me[a]
139 Lord, you look deep inside me,
and you know all about me.
2 You know when I sit down,
and you know when I get up.
Even when you are far away,
you understand what I am thinking about.
3 You see me when I go out,
and you see me when I stay at home.
You know everything that I do!
4 Yes Lord, before I open my mouth to speak,
you know what I will say.
5 You are all around me, in front of me and behind me.
You put your hand on me to help me.
6 You know so much about me, it is wonderful.
I cannot understand it.
My thoughts cannot reach as high as that!
7 Is there anywhere that I can go
to run away from your Spirit?
Anywhere that I go, you are already there!
8 If I go up to heaven,
you would be there.
If I dig deep down into the ground to reach Sheol,
you would be there too.
9 If I fly away to where the sun rises in the east,
or to the other side of the sea in the west,
you would be there.
10 You would use your hand to lead me.
Your strong right hand would keep me safe.
11 I might say, ‘I will hide myself in the dark,
and the light round me will change into night.’
12 But it is never too dark for you to see.
For you, the night has as much light as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you!
13 You made every part of me.
You made me grow inside my mother before I was born.
14 I thank you for the wonderful way that you have made me.
Everything that you do is wonderful!
I know it is true.
15 While you caused me to grow in a secret place,
none of my body was hidden from you.
You made me deep in the earth.[b]
16 Your eyes watched me before I was born.
Before I had seen the light of day,
you decided how many days I would live!
You wrote it down in your book.
17 You have so many thoughts about me, God,
that I cannot understand them all.
18 They are too many for me to count,
more than the sand on the shore of the sea.
Even if I finished counting them,
you would still be there!
19 God, you should surely destroy the wicked people!
Yes, you murderers, leave me alone!
20 Those people say bad things against you, God.
Your enemies always tell lies.
21 Lord, I hate those people who hate you.
I have no time for those who turn against you.
22 Yes, I really hate them.
Your enemies are my enemies too.
23 Please God, look deep inside me.
See what is there in my thoughts.
24 Show me if I am following any evil way.
Lead me in the right way that has always been true.
15 A greedy leech has two daughters.[a] They are always saying, ‘Give me more!’
There are three things that never have enough for themselves, even four things:
16 The deep hole of death.
A wife who has no children.
Dry ground that needs rain.
A fire that burns strongly.
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