13. Haggai asked, “Suppose a person becomes unclean by touching a corpse. If he touches any of these things, does that make them unclean?”The priests answered, “That makes them unclean.”
14. Then Haggai answered, “In the same way, I have decided that these people are unclean, and so is this nation, declares the Lord. So is everything they do. Whatever offering they bring is unclean.
15. “And from now on, carefully consider this. Consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the temple of the Lord.
16. When anyone came to a pile of grain ⌊to get⌋ 20 measures, there would be only 10. And when anyone came to a wine vat to draw out 50 measures, there would be only 20 in it.
17. I infested all your work with blight and mildew and struck it with hail. But you didn’t come back to me, declares the Lord.
18. Carefully consider from now on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day when the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Carefully consider: