12`If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with his fold touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any food, will it become holy?`" The priests answered, "No."
13Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touch any of these, will it be unclean?" The priests answered, "It will be unclean."
14Then Haggai answered, "`So is this people, and so is this nation before me,` says Yahweh; `and so is every work of their hands. That which they offer there is unclean.
15Now, please consider from this day and backward, before a stone was laid on a stone in the temple of Yahweh.
16Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty, there were only twenty.
17I struck you with blight, mildew, and hail in all the work of your hands; yet you didn`t turn to me,` says Yahweh.
18`Consider, please, from this day and backward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, since the day that the foundation of Yahweh`s temple was laid, consider it.
