Rebuild the Temple

¹On the first day of the sixth month of the second year that Darius was king of Persia, the Lord told Haggai the prophet to speak his message to the governor of Judah and to the high priest.[#Ezra 4.24—5.2; 6.14.; #1.1 Elul, the sixth month of the Hebrew calendar, from about mid-August to mid-September; the second year of the rule of Darius was 520 b.c.]

So Haggai told Governor Zerubbabel and High Priest Joshua

^2-3-4-5that the Lord All-Powerful had said to them and to the people:

¹²Zerubbabel and Joshua, together with the others who had returned from exile in Babylonia, obeyed the Lord 's message spoken by his prophet Haggai, and they started showing proper respect for the Lord .

¹³Haggai then told them that the Lord had promised to be with them.

¹⁴So the Lord God All-Powerful made everyone eager to work on his temple, especially Zerubbabel and Joshua.

¹⁵And the work began on the twenty-fourth day of that same month.