Haggai the Prophet חגי הנביא

The building begun under Zerubbabel had stood still for years: the neighbours obstructed it, the permit was withdrawn, and meanwhile people settled into their own affairs. Haggai speaks in the second year of Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, and addresses Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

He puts the question so that it cannot be evaded: "is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your panelled houses while this house lies in ruins?" And he explains why nothing prospers: you sow much and bring in little; you eat and are not satisfied; the wage-earner puts his wages into a bag with holes.

It worked — one of the rare cases in Scripture where a prophet was obeyed at once: twenty-three days later the work resumed.

The second address is to the old men who remembered the First Temple. They wept at how much poorer the new building was. Haggai answers with a promise that became a formula of consolation: "the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, and in this place I will grant peace."

With Zechariah and Malachi, Haggai is one of the last prophets; after them, the Talmud says, prophecy departed from Israel, and its place was taken by the sages of the Great Assembly.