Haggai was active for a very short time, only about four months, in the second year of Darius I (520/521 BCE). In these four months, Haggai managed to encourage the exiled people of Zion to return to Judah and Jerusalem, to begin building the temple. They faced many difficulties: they suffered from drought and shortage and did not manage to get by in the barren land. When they started building the temple, Haggai was required to strengthen the spirit of the people and its leaders, Zerubbabel the priest and Joshua the high priest, in view of the modest dimensions of the building, with the promise that "the glory of this new Temple will surpass that of the old".