It was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of Darius the king.”​—Haggai 1:14, 15.

The time is dated: it was on Elul 24 of the second year of Darius I, the king of Persia. This was toward the middle of September of the year 520 B.C.E. It was the time of the year for the dews to begin forming on the vegetation after the midsummer dry season.