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Haggai 1

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Call to Zerubbabel and Joshua 1–2

1
In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, ​
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Thus speaketh Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people say, It is not the time for us to come, the time for Jehovah’s house to be built. ​

The Challenge to Consider Your Ways 3–11

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Then came the word of Jehovah by Haggai the prophet, saying,
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Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, while this house lieth waste? ​
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Now therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways. ​
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Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. ​
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Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Consider your ways.
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Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith Jehovah. ​
9
Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith Jehovah of hosts. Because of my house that lieth waste, while ye run every man to his own house. ​
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Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholdeth its fruit. ​
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And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the grain, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands. ​

The People Obey and Begin Work 12–15

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Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of Jehovah their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as Jehovah their God had sent him; and the people did fear before Jehovah. ​
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Then spake Haggai Jehovah’s messenger in Jehovah’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith Jehovah. ​
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And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work on the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God, ​
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in the four and twentieth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Haggai 1

Verse 1

In the second year of Darius the king — Cyrus had sent the exiles back to build (Ezra 1:1–5), but the work 'ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius' (Ezra 4:24). Haggai's word to the governor and to Joshua, called Jeshua the son of Jozadak in Ezra 5:2, restarts it. The date is the first day of the sixth month.

Verse 2

The time is not come — The LORD quotes the people's own saying. The work had stopped (Ezra 4:24), and the saying turned the stop into a rule, 'the time that the LORD'S house should be built'. His answer in v.4 is that their own houses were not waiting for any such time.

Verse 4

cieled houses — Saphan, to cover with panelling: the word for the cedar covering of Solomon's temple (1 Kgs 6:9) and the king's house, and for the house 'cieled with cedar' in Jer 22:14. The people dwell in finished houses while 'this house' lies waste (chareb). David had made the same comparison: 'I dwell in an house of cedar' (2 Sam 7:2).

Verse 5

Consider your ways — The Hebrew idiom is 'set your heart upon your ways' (sum with lebab, heart). It is repeated at once in v.7 and returns at 2:15 and 2:18, there looking back to the laying of the foundation. What follows in vv.6, 9–11 is the account of those ways and what they had yielded.

Verse 6

a bag with holes — Five labours (sowing, eating, drinking, clothing, wages) each end short. This is the futility the covenant named: 'Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in' (Deut 28:38). The bag with holes is the wage-earner's pay, spent and gone.

Verse 8

I will be glorified — Kabed, the verb of Lev 10:3, 'before all the people I will be glorified'. The command is three short actions, go up, bring wood and build, while the promise is two, 'I will take pleasure in it' (ratsah, to accept) and glory. Hag 2:7 follows: 'I will fill this house with glory.'

Verse 9

I did blow upon it — Naphach, to blow: the breath that breathed life into man (Gen 2:7) here scatters what was 'brought home'. 'Waste' is again chareb, the word of v.4. The people 'run' (ruts) each to his own house; Hag 2:17 names the means, 'blasting and… mildew and… hail'.

Verse 10

the heaven over you is stayed from dew — Kala, to shut up, is used of both heaven and earth. The covenant had warned, 'I will make your heaven as iron' (Lev 26:19), and Solomon's prayer at the dedication pictured the same: 'When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee' (1 Kgs 8:35).

Verse 11

I called for a drought — Choreb, dryness, from the family of the 'waste' (chareb) of vv.4, 9. The LORD 'called' for it as for a servant, as Elisha said, 'the LORD hath called for a famine' (2 Kgs 8:1). It reaches 'the corn… the new wine… the oil', the three harvests of the land, and then men, cattle and 'all the labour of the hands'.

Verse 12

obeyed the voice of the LORD their God — The leaders and 'all the remnant of the people' (she'erit) obeyed 'the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him'; to hear the prophet sent was to hear the LORD. 'Did fear before the LORD' is the response the preceding verses sought. Ezra 5:2 records the building that followed.

Verse 13

the LORD'S messenger in the LORD'S message — Malak, messenger, is the word usually rendered 'angel'; malakuth, 'message', is found only here. The message is a single promise, 'I am with you, saith the LORD', repeated in 2:4 in the same words with 'of hosts' added.

Verse 14

stirred up the spirit — Uwr, to rouse from sleep. The same verb is used in Ezra 1:1 of Cyrus, 'the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia', and in Ezra 1:5 of the first returning company, 'whose spirit God had raised'. The governor, the high priest and the remnant are each moved by the same hand, and then 'did work'.

Verse 15

the four and twentieth day of the sixth month — It falls twenty-three days after the word of v.1. Haggai 2:18 sets 'the four and twentieth day of the ninth month' as the day 'the foundation of the LORD'S temple was laid', and from that day the LORD says, 'from this day will I bless you' (2:19).