Haggai 2:18

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

So teach us to count our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

“ ‘You shall make for yourselves no idols, and you shall not raise up a carved image or a pillar, and you shall not place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am Yahweh your God.

“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me.

“You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.

Oh that there were such a heart in them that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

When the builders laid the foundation of Yahweh’s temple, they set the priests in their clothing with trumpets, with the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise Yahweh, according to the directions of David king of Israel.

This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.

Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

It will happen in that day, I will respond,” says Yahweh, “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;

Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways.

Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says Yahweh. ‘Be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ says Yahweh, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ says Yahweh of Armies.

Yahweh of Armies says: “Let your hands be strong, you who hear in these days these words from the mouth of the prophets who were in the day that the foundation of the house of Yahweh of Armies was laid, even the temple, that it might be built.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be room enough for.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.

God give you of the dew of the sky, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and new wine.

‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

About Joseph he said, “His land is blessed by Yahweh, for the precious things of the heavens, for the dew, for the deep that couches beneath,

“Be strong and courageous; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

He restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, then his mother said, “I most certainly dedicate the silver to Yahweh from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a molten image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”

Ahitub became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Ahimaaz.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens.

“Go inquire of Yahweh for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found; for great is Yahweh’s wrath that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept Yahweh’s word, to do according to all that is written in this book.”

Now in the second year of their coming to God’s house at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of Yahweh’s house.

Then work stopped on God’s house which is at Jerusalem. It stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

The first of all the first fruits of every thing, and every offering of everything, of all your offerings, shall be for the priest. You shall also give to the priests the first of your dough, to cause a blessing to rest on your house.

Now, please consider from this day and backward, before a stone was laid on a stone in Yahweh’s temple.

Yahweh’s word came the second time to Haggai in the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying,

It shall come to pass that, as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Don’t be afraid. Let your hands be strong.”

saying, “If you, even you, had known today the things which belong to your peace! But now, they are hidden from your eyes.

For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.

He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

Then you will prosper, if you observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which Yahweh gave Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed.

The gold and silver vessels of God’s house, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, and brought into the temple of Babylon, those Cyrus the king also took out of the temple of Babylon, and they were delivered to one whose name was Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens.

sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase.

The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and plentiful. In that day, your livestock will feed in large pastures.

Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution. He will come and save you.

You said, ‘I will be a princess forever,’ so that you didn’t lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the results.

Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

Her filthiness was in her skirts. She didn’t remember her latter end. Therefore she has come down astoundingly. She has no comforter. “See, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.”

I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field, that you may receive no more the reproach of famine among the nations.

I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon.

Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh’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,

This is what Yahweh of Armies says: “Consider your ways.

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

Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven’t produced. From today I will bless you.’ ”

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,

“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that Yahweh of Armies has sent me to you.

“For the seed of peace and the vine will yield its fruit, and the ground will give its increase, and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things.

But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.

making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this.”

Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

On the first day of every week, let each one of you save, as he may prosper, that no collections are made when I come.

From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, Yahweh blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. Yahweh’s blessing was on all that he had, in the house and in the field.

For the stuff they had was sufficient to do all the work, and too much.

then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it shall bear fruit for the three years.

Yahweh our God, all this store that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name comes from your hand, and is all your own.

Azariah the chief priest, of the house of Zadok, answered him and said, “Since people began to bring the offerings into Yahweh’s house, we have eaten and had enough, and have plenty left over, for Yahweh has blessed his people; and that which is left is this great store.”

even those, Cyrus king of Persia brought out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.

Then the same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundations of God’s house which is in Jerusalem. Since that time even until now it has been being built, and yet it is not completed.

Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and revived us a little in our bondage.

You say, ‘God lays up his iniquity for his children.’ Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

Yes, Yahweh will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.

Yahweh’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction:

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

Generation, consider Yahweh’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?’

“Now, behold, if he fathers a son, who sees all his father’s sins, which he has done, and fears, and does not such like;

Because he considers, and turns away from all his transgressions that he has committed, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

“ ‘ “But the Levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who performed the duty of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, shall come near to me to minister to me. They shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord Yahweh.

They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.

Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.

In the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, Yahweh’s word came by Haggai the prophet, saying,

I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says Yahweh of Armies.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, like a hen gathers her own brood under her wings, and you refused!

you being enriched in everything to all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us.

But I have all things and abound. I am filled, having received from Epaphroditus the things that came from you, a sweet-smelling fragrance, an acceptable and well-pleasing sacrifice to God.

But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons,

Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

“ ‘Don’t turn to idols, nor make molten gods for yourselves. I am Yahweh your God.