Haggai 2:3

Who [is] left among you that saw this house in her first glory?.... Not taken away by death, yet alive, and dwelling among them; and who lived before the destruction of the first temple, built by

Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?

Who is left among you? there are surely some that are of that age as to have seen the temple which our father’ s sins, God’ s just displeasure, and the Chaldean malice burnt; who are they? and where may they be found? This question implieth there were such, and by ,13 it appears there were many, for the cries and sobs of them equalled the shouts of the younger, who rejoiced to see the foundations of the second house laid. That saw; took notice of it then, and remember it now, that were of such age and knowledge as to remember what was standing in its glory one hundred and fifty years ago, if some conjecture aright, but, what is nearer to truth, who remember some fourscore years past, who are about one hundred years of age. This house; the house of God, the temple built by Solomon. In her first glory; in the stately structure of it, in the rich adornings of it, in the unparalleled skill and curiosity of its workmanship, when it was the glory of the world. How do ye see it now? do you see the same glorious structure going forward? have you expectation of one equal to the former temple? You cannot but recall the former to mind, and make your judgment of this by that. Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do you not judge this second nothing comparable with the first? you are ready to say, (in proverbial speech,) It is nothing to it. Who is left among you? there are surely some that are of that age as to have seen the temple which our father’ s sins, God’ s just displeasure, and the Chaldean malice burnt; who are they? and where may they be found? This question implieth there were such, and by ,13 it appears there were many, for the cries and sobs of them equalled the shouts of the younger, who rejoiced to see the foundations of the second house laid. Is it not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing? do you not judge this second nothing comparable with the first? you are ready to say, (in proverbial speech,) It is nothing to it.

Haggai 2:3 Who [is] left among you that saw this house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? [is it] not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?Ver. 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?] Some such there were among them (as is here implied), and these must needs be very old, one hundred and twenty, at least, some say more. Zerubbabel might well be one of these; for he was a chieftain in the first year of Cyrus, Ezra 2:2. And Jehoshua, the high priest, might be another; for he came out of Babylon with Zerubbabel at the same time, Ezra 3:2. We see by experience that men’ s lives are daily shortened. Natural reasons whereof may be these. 1. Untimely marriages. 2. Filling our bodies with variety of foods, and so digging our own graves with our own teeth. 3. Much ease and delicacy. The supernatural reason may be that so the world may sooner come to an end. God maketh haste to have the number of his elect fulfilled, and therefore dispatcheth away the generations, shorteneth life for his elect’ s sake, fetcheth home his pilgrims, makes their days few, though evil, takes them away from the evil to come, &c., death being to them aerumnarum requies rest from all toils, (as Chaucer’ s motto was), yea, ianua vitae, porta coeli, the door of life, the gate to heaven, the daybreak of eternal brightness. And how do ye see it now?] It is a part of old men’ s prudence rightly to compare things long since past with things present, and so to conjecture at things to come. Thus the prudent person, by discourse of reason, foreseeth an evil and hideth himself, when the young fool passeth on and is punished. Is it not in your eyes] That is, in your thoughts; for God taketh notice of the inward workings of the heart, 1 Samuel 16:7 Psalms 139:2 1 Kings 8:39. For he made the heart, and must therefore know all that is in it; as a watchmaker knows all the wheels and motions of the watch. He also will bring every secret thing into judgment, Ecclesiastes 12:14. Therefore thought is not free (as foolish folk dote), either from the notice of his eye (he had soon found out these Jews, when they did but despise the day of small things in their hearts, Zechariah 4:10), or from the censure of his mouth, Hebrews 4:12-13 Romans 7:14 (the law is spiritual and meets with involuntary motions to sin, Haggai 2:7), or, lastly, from the stroke of his hand, which is a mighty hand, 1 Peter 5:6, and falls very heavy, Deuteronomy 29:19, even for a root of bitterness, as it is there, for vain thoughts, Jeremiah 4:14; how much more for mischievous, murderous, covetous, vain-glorious, and adulterous thoughts, &c.

(3) Is it not . . .—Better, is not such a (Temple) as this like nothing in your eyes?

Verse 3. Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory?] Who of you has seen the temple built by Solomon? The foundation of the present house had been laid about fifty-three years after the destruction of the temple built by Solomon and though this prophecy was uttered fifteen years after the foundation of this second temple, yet there might still survive some of those who had seen the temple of Solomon. Is it not in your eyes] Most certainly the Jews at this time had neither men nor means to make any such splendid building as that erected by Solomon. The present was as nothing when compared with the former.

3. Who is left among you? &c.] When the foundations of this Temple were laid in the second year of Cyrus there were many such. Now after sixteen more years, when seventy years had elapsed since the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, the number must have been greatly diminished. Old men of fourscore years or thereabouts they must now have been. how do ye see it?] Lit., what (i.e. of what kind) do ye see it. Comp. 1 Kings 9:13, where Hiram in displeasure at the cities given him by Solomon exclaims, “what cities are these (pr. quid urbium hoc, Gesen.) which thou hast given me, my brother?” in comparison of it] These words should be omitted as in R.V. They were inserted in A.V. through a misunderstanding of the Hebrew idiom. “Besides the richness of the sculptures in the former Temple, everything which admitted of it was overlaid with gold; Solomon overlaid the whole house with gold, until he had finished all the house, the whole altar by the oracle, the two cherubims, the floor of the house, the doors of the Holy of Holies and the ornaments of it, the cherubims thereon, and the palm trees he covered with gold fitted upon the carved work; the altar of gold and the table of gold, whereupon the shewbread was, the ten candlesticks of pure gold, with the flowers and the lamps and the tongs of gold, the bowls, the snuffers and the basons and the spoons and the censers of pure gold, and hinges of pure gold for all the doors of the Temple. The porch that was in the front of the house, twenty cubits broad and 120 cubits high, was overlaid within with pure gold; the house glistened with precious stones; and the gold (it is added) was gold of Parvaim, a land distant of course and unknown to us. Six hundred talents of gold (about £4,320,000) were employed in overlaying the Holy of Holies. The upper chambers were also of gold; the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold.” Pusey.

Who is left among you? - The question implies that there were those among them, who had seen the first house in its glory, yet but few. When the foundations of the first temple were laid, there were many Ezra 3:12.

3. The prophet does not deny that there is a marked contrast between the former temple and the one on which they are now laboring. This house — The temple of Jehovah.