Haggai 2:10-23

In the second year of Darius, on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the word of YAHWEH was spoken to the prophet Haggai as follows: “I, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, say to you: ‘Ask the priests for their ruling on this: If someone holds consecrated meat from a sacrifice and carries it in the fold of his priestly robe, could his robe then pass on holiness if it comes into contact with bread, stew, wine, olive oil, or any kind of food at all?’ ” “No,” the priests replied. Haggai then said, “If anyone is ritually unclean by contact with a corpse and touches any of these things, would it become unclean?” The priests replied, “Yes, it is unclean.” Then Haggai said, “So it is the same with this people. YAHWEH declares: ‘The nation is unclean in my eyes. Everything they produce is unclean to me, and everything they offer at the altar is also unclean.’ ” “Now consider carefully your recent past before you started rebuilding YAHWEH’s temple. Stop and remember what condition you were in. You would come expecting to scoop twenty measures of grain but find only ten. You would come expecting to draw fifty measures of wine from a vat but find only twenty. I struck the produce of your labor by sending hail, hot desert winds to wither your grain, and damp winds to make it rot. Yet you still would not return to me —declares YAHWEH. “Today is the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day the people resumed the building of my temple. So be intentional from today forward. The seed is still in the storehouse, isn’t it? Until now, the grapevines, fig trees, pomegranate and olive trees have not produced a harvest, but from now on, I will certainly bless you, and your harvest will be plentiful.” On that same day, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the word of YAHWEH happened a second time to Haggai, as follows: “Tell these words to Zerubbabel governor of Judah: ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will topple thrones and destroy the dynasties of foreign kingdoms. I will crash their chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders will die, for their riders will kill one another with the sword. I, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies, declare, when that day comes, I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and make you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you to be mine. I, YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies have spoken.’ ”