15. “ ‘Think about this from now on! Think about how it was before you started laying stones on top of stones to build the Temple of the Lord.
16. A person used to come to a pile of grain expecting to find twenty basketfuls, but there were only ten. And a person used to come to the wine vat to take out fifty jarfuls, but only twenty were there.
17. I destroyed your work with diseases, mildew, and hail, but you still did not come back to me,’ says the Lord.
18. ‘It is the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day in which the people finished working on the foundation of the Temple of the Lord. From now on, think about these things:
19. Do you have seeds for crops still in the barn? Your vines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olive trees have not given fruit yet. But from now on I will bless you!’ ”
20. Then the Lord spoke his word a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month. He said,
21. “Tell Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth.
22. I will destroy the foreign kingdoms and take away the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will destroy the chariots and their riders. The horses will fall with their riders, as people kill each other with swords.’
23. The Lord All-Powerful says, ‘On that day I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will make you important like my signet ring, because I have chosen you!’ says the Lord All-Powerful.”