¹⁵ And now, give thought, looking back from this day to the time before one stone was put on another in the Temple of the Lord:

⁵ For this cause the Lord of armies has said, Give thought to your ways.

²⁴ So the work of the house of God at Jerusalem came to an end; so it was stopped, till the second year of the rule of Darius, king of Persia.

¹⁰ And when the builders put in position the base of the Temple of the Lord, the priests, dressed in their robes, took their places with horns, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with brass instruments, to give praise to the Lord in the way ordered by David, king of Israel.

¹⁸ And now, give thought; looking on from this day, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the time when the base of the Lord's house was put in its place, give thought to it.

⁷ This is what the Lord of armies has said: Give thought to your ways.

³¹ But if we were true judges of ourselves, punishment would not come on us.

²¹ What fruit had you at that time in the things which are now a shame to you? for the end of such things is death.

⁸ Will a man keep back from God what is right? But you have kept back what is mine. But you say, What have we kept back from you? Tenths and offerings.

⁹ You are cursed with a curse; for you have kept back from me what is mine, even all this nation.

¹⁰ Let your tenths come into the store-house so that there may be food in my house, and put me to the test by doing so, says the Lord of armies, and see if I do not make the windows of heaven open and send down such a blessing on you that there is no room for it.

¹¹ And on your account I will keep back the locusts from wasting the fruits of your land; and the fruit of your vine will not be dropped on the field before its time, says the Lord of armies

⁹ As for Ephraim, what has he to do with false gods any longer? I have given an answer and I will keep watch over him; I am like a branching fir-tree, from me comes your fruit.

¹² And corded instruments and wind-instruments and wine are in their feasts: but they give no thought to the work of the Lord, and they are not interested in what his hands are doing.

⁴³ Let the wise give thought to these things, and see the mercies of the Lord.