13 Then Haggai said, ‘If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?’‘Yes,’ the priests replied, ‘it becomes defiled.’
14 Then Haggai said, ‘ “So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,” declares the Lord. “Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.
15 ‘ “Now give careful thought to this from this day on – consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple.
16 When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.
17 I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not return to me,” declares the Lord.
18 “From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought:
19 is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig-tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.‘ “From this day on I will bless you.” ’