18-20. The joys of which the prophet speaks were distant. He does not forget the present sorrows of Israel, or the sufferings they had yet to bear, before they could raise the shout of triumph. He has words of comfort specially adapted to cheer the hearts of those who mourned in Zion. It is God Himself who now speaks (verse 20) to the sorrowful, assuring them that He knows their sorrows, that He will deliver and restore them, take away their reproach, and make them famous. B. C.

18. The sentiment is that God will gather home to Zion those dispersed ones who had been sad because of their long exclusion from her solemn feasts, and who had borne reproach for their God.

19,20. God will reverse the state of her long-depressed and scattered people. The feeble shall be saved with strength; the exiled brought home in triumph; the long-dishonored and disowned shall have praise and fame in the very place where they had been put to shame. The public sentiment of the world is changed, and the real friends of God are now held, not in contempt, but in honor. It can scarcely be supposed that the restoration from Babylon exhausted the significance of these promises. Then the restored people were few and feeble. Though honored and favored by Cyrus, yet they were by no means greatly honored by their nearest neighbors, the Samaritans, nor by other contiguous nations. Something more and better than that must lie yet treasured up for Zion in these promises. Yet further, the clear indications in this chapter (verses 9, 10) of the conversion of the Gentiles also must carry the great body of these predictions over into the Gospel era, and some portion of them down into those times described by Paul (Rom. 11), when, almost simultaneously, the Jews will be grafted back into their former stock, and the Gentile world be converted to the same ever blessed God. O come, that glorious day! H. C.

1: 1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, It is not the time for us to come, 3 the time for the LORD’s house to be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the 4 prophet, saying, Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your cielded houses, while this 5 house lieth waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye 7 are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages 8 earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider your 9 ways. Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take plea- 10 sure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to 11 little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that lieth waste, while ye run every man to his own house. There- 12 fore for your sake the heaven is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the 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.

12. 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 the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people did fear before 13 the LORD. Then spake Haggai the LORD’s messenger in the LORD’s message unto the people, 14 saying, I am with you, saith the LORD. And the LORD 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 in 15 the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, in the four and twentieth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

2: 1 In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of 2 the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant 3 of the people, saying, Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? and 4 how do ye see it now? is it not in your eyes as nothing? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and work: for I am with you, saith the LORD of 5 hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my 6 spirit abode among you: fear ye not. For thus saith the LORD of hosts: Yet once, it is a 7 little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the desirable things of all nations shall come, and I will fill this 8 house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith 9 the LORD of hosts. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

10. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the 11 word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Ask now 12 the priests concerning the law, saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it become holy? 13 And the priests answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall 14 be unclean. Then answered Haggai and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is 15 unclean. And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone 16 was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD: through all that time, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the winefat for to draw 17 out fifty vessels, there were but twenty. I smote you with blasting and with mildew and 18 with hail in all the work of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD. Consider, I pray you, from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, 19 since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider it. Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree hath not brought forth; from this day will I bless you. 20 And the word of the LORD came the second time unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the 22 heavens and the earth: and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of 23 his brother. In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.

Introduction.

HAG’GAI or Hag’gai, the tenth in order of the minor prophets, and first of those who prophesied after the Captivity. With regard to his tribe and parentage, both history and tradition are alike silent. Probably he was one of the exiles who returned with Zerubbabel and Jeshua. The rebuilding of the temple, commenced in the reign of Cyrus (n.c. 535), was suspended during the reigns of his successors, Cambyses and Pseudo-Smerdis, in consequence of the determined hostility of the Samaritans. On the accession of Darius Hystaspes (n.c. 521), the prophets Haggai and Zechariah urged the renewal of the undertaking, and obtained the permission and assistance of the King (Ezra 5:1; 6:14). Animated by the high courage of these devoted men, the people prosecuted the work with vigor, and the temple was completed and dedicated in the sixth year of Darius (n.c. 516). According to tradition, Haggai was born in Babylon, was a young man when he came to Jerusalem, and was buried with honor near the sepulchres of the priests. It has hence been conjectured that he was a priest. Dic. B.

Cyrus, on his accession to the Medo-Persian throne, two years after it had absorbed the Chaldean empire and made Babylon its capital, issued an edict, strongly inviting the Jews to return to their own land, and rebuild both their holy city and their temple. Fifty thousand responded to this call, and under Zerubbabel as governor, and Joshua as high priest, returned to the land of their fathers, and commenced rebuilding the city, and in process of time the temple also. The Book of Ezra gives the Jewish history of these events. It there appears that in the second year of Cyrus (n.c. 535), and in the second month, they began to rebuild the temple; that soon the Samaritans began to oppose and retard their work, and kept up this opposition during the remaining five years of the reign of Cyrus (Ezra 4:5), and yet more vigorously and successfully, under his vile son and successor Cambyses (called, Ezra 4:6, “Ahasuerus”), who reigned seven years and five months. At length, from his successor, Smerdis (called, Ezra 4:7, 8, 11, 23, Artaxerxes), they obtained an order that the work should absolutely cease. This Smerdis reigned but seven months. A better king succeeded, in the person of Darius Hystaspes. As Smerdis was at best only an usurper, and as the decree of Cyrus was therefore still the law of the realm, there was no legal obstacle in the way of resuming this work the first moment after the pressure of violent prevention was removed. When, throughout the first year of Darius, it was seen that the people did not resume this work, but occupied themselves in fitting up and even embellishing their own houses, the Lord sent His prophet Haggai, and two months later Zechariah, to rebuke them for this neglect, and to encourage them to resume and complete the building of the temple. The work was completed in the sixth year of Darius (Ezra 6:15). These are briefly the historic facts which, being intimately connected with the subject-matter of this book, are essential to its intelligent exposition. H. C.—Read carefully the history, v. vii., pp. 501-6. B.

Haggai stands next on the prophetic roll to Zephaniah; but between these two prophets there is a wide interval of time, at least a century; and this interval was marked by events so momentous and tragic as to change the whole face of the goodly land and to effect a corresponding change on the character, conditions and prospects of its inhabitants. The Captivity had intervened, and the Return. The land had been invaded, depopulated, reduced to a jungle haunted by wild beasts. The cities had been broken down and burned with fire; the very temple had become a charred and blackened heap of ruins. Zephaniah had foretold the judgment which was to sweep through the land, and to sweep away not only man and beast from it, but their offences with the sinners, in terms so sombre and terrible as that they still make our hearts tremble when we read them; and his prediction had been utterly fulfilled. No greater, or apparently more irreparable calamity could well have fallen on a nation than that which fell on Judea. Not only was a large majority of the men capable of bearing arms cut off; not only were the statesmen, priests, farmers, merchants, and even the skilled artisans and the able-bodied peasants and laborers carried away captive, so that the land was left well-nigh without inhabitant; but its central and most fertile valley was given to an idolatrous and half-barbarous horde of aliens, who were unable to recover the soil from the tropical jungle which had sprung up over it, or so much as to keep the lions that haunted it at bay.

Nevertheless the purpose of God stood fast, His purpose to redeem His people, and to restore them to the land of their fathers. During the seventy years of the Captivity He kept their hopes alive by the ministry of the great prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, assuring them that, if they should confess their sins and return to Him, He would deliver them from their bondage, lead them back in triumph to the country and the city in which He had dwelt among them as a king among his subjects, and raise them to a height of welfare and privilege such as they had never reached before. As the term of the Captivity drew to an end, the voice of prophecy grew more clear and bright; and at last the promise was fulfilled or began to be fulfilled. Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, the conqueror of Babylon, whom God had chosen to be His servant and “the shepherd” of His people, issued an edict, authorizing as many as were so minded to return to Jerusalem, and to rebuild the house of the Lord God of Israel. Some fifty thousand of the captives, led by Zerubbabel, a prince of the house of David, and by Joshua, a priest of the house of Aaron, came back to their abandoned city and ravaged land; and among these returning exiles there was probably a young man named Haggai, and another named Zechariah, who were soon to receive the prophetic inspiration, as they may already have received a prophetic training from the seers of the Exile.

The merit of Haggai does not lie in his style, but in the clear perception he had of the principles on which God rules men and their affairs; in his conviction that only as men maintain a sincere communion with Him, and render Him a frank obedience, can they reach their true blessedness; and in the zeal with which he devoted himself to the task of implanting these convictions in the breasts of his fellows. His value to us lies not in the finished beauty of his verse, but in the example he has left us, and in the light he pours on an obscure period of the Hebrew story. We know little of the life of the exiles for the first twenty years after their return to the land of their fathers, of the thoughts that were habitual to them, of the motives by which they were inspired. Even if we read the first six chapters of the Book of Ezra, which covers the history of this period, we learn comparatively little of what was most inward and peculiar to the men of the time. But as we study Haggai and Zechariah, we see this very period from the inside rather than from without, and learn what we most need to know of the moral conditions of the time, of how the world and human life shaped themselves to the men of that day, and how the will of God worked out through their weak and erring wills to ends of mercy that comprehend the welfare of mankind at large. This is Haggai’s “glory”—not that he was a great poet, but that he was emphatically a good man, with a steadfast faith in the Divine laws when they seemed incredible, a keen sense of their application to the wants and conditions of his time, and that he was possessed by a burning zeal for the house and honor of God. Cor.

The recorded prophetic action of Haggai occurred in the second year (n.c. 520) of Darius, son of Hystaspes, who must be clearly distinguished from Darius Nothus, whose reign fell a whole century later. Some sixteen years before the return from Exile had taken place (n.c. 536), and, according to the traditional interpretation of the difficult narrative found in the Book of Ezra, the foundation of the new temple was laid early in the following year. Little progress was made with the building ere the work had to be abandoned, owing to the intrigues of jealous neighbors at the imperial court. An altar had, indeed, been at once inaugurated and the routine of sacrificial worship established, but the temple edifice was left untouched during the reigns of Cyrus, Cambyses, and the usurper Pseudo-Smerdis. The position of things was profoundly dangerous and discreditable to the newly founded community at Jerusalem. At this critical point in the history of the restored community the prophet Haggai appeared on the scene, and to him, in concert with Zechariah (Ezra 5: 1, 2; 6: 14), belongs the credit of having recalled Israel to the path of duty and the ministry of revelation. The message of Haggai is directed to one definite purpose from beginning to end: to rouse the people to resume the erection of the sanctuary, to keep them steadfast to the work against every possible discouragement and to inspire them with an animating faith in the inner grandeur of the material undertaking on which they were engaged.

The Book of Haggai consists of three prophetic appearances, falling respectively in the sixth, seventh and ninth months of the second year of Darius. The prophet pillories the people’s acquiescent procrastination of the duty of rearing and finishing the temple, while they themselves (1 Chron. 17: 1) dwell in well-panelled houses. He seizes on that very element in their condition which had been their chief excuse for delay, the poorness of the material progress already made, and turns it into a stimulus to energetic action. Boldly he declares that a blight and canker of dissatisfaction must rest on all they do, so long as the central element of moral and material prosperity is neglected, and with promises of happier days and more rewardful industry, he urges them to concentrate the whole energies and resources of the community on the restoration of the temple (1: 1-11). The appeal pierces the conscience and convinces the judgment of the little colony. The prophet assures them that in their new obedience to the Divine will they shall have the presence with them and the succor of Jehovah, and twenty-four days later operations are commenced on the temple ruins (1: 12-15). Before a month had elapsed a moral danger menaced the undertaking. With natural retrospective partiality, with no ill intentions, but with the most disheartening effects on the workers, the old people, who remembered the splendor of the former temple (Ezra 3 : 12, 13), indulged in disparaging comparisons between its magnificence and the poverty of its successor, doubted whether the future could retrieve the vanished past and questioned if Israel’s forfeited birthright were not lost beyond recall. Energetically the prophet intervenes, protests against such faithlessness in the Divine presence and tenacity of purpose, declares that God’s promises may linger on the way, but cannot lapse on account of man’s unfaithfulness, and in view of Jehovah’s power, the changes of providence, and the certainty of Heaven’s resolves, predicts, with ringing certainty of assurance, that the future glory of the temple shall outshine all the wonders of the past in the peace and perfect fruition of God’s accomplished purposes (2 : 1-9).

Two months later a fresh intervention took place. Apparently doubts were expressed in some quarters, if the completion of the temple would bring the desired and promised prosperity, which the erection of the altar and performance of religious rites had failed to secure. Haggai, by an illustration derived from the rules of ceremonial holiness and defilement, shows the people that all their previous endeavors were contaminated and robbed of blessing by the guilt of their neglect of their central and supreme obligation, and, assuring them that the impotence of partial surrender to God’s will must not be made the measure of the possibilities of complete consecration, promises them the progress and well being that had been hitherto lacking (2 : 10-19). Then, turning to the head and representative of the small and unassuming theocracy, which yet held within it the promise and potency of Heaven’s best gift to men, the prophet foretells the downfall and overthrow of all worldly powers and authorities, and through the Divine favor, fidelity and unchanging purpose of redemption, predicts the ultimate supremacy of God’s chosen servant and minister on earth (2 : 20-23). Elmslie.

Chap. 1. An appeal to the Israelites to take up in earnest the work of restoring the temple of Jehovah, which work had been intermitted for some years, not for want of means (for they had built sumptuous residences for themselves), but because of the opposition they had met with, and their own want of zeal and energy in the service of Jehovah. This neglect, as

Haggai reminds them, had been followed by calamities indicative of the Divine displeasure. The successful issue of his appeal is recorded in Ezra 5 : 1, 2. B. C.

The Lord rebukes the neglect of the people to build His house; calls their attention to their lean and meagre harvests, and to His blighting curses upon their land and labor because of this neglect; and when the people shall have returned to this duty, pledges them His favoring presence. H. C.

1. Darius the king.** This can be no other than Darius, the son of Hystaspes, whose second year was B.C. 520, so that when Haggai began to prophesy eighteen years had elapsed since the exiles had come back from Babylon under Zerubbabel; and sixteen years had passed since the foundation of the house of Jehovah was laid. (See Ezra 3 : 8-11.) The external sources of opposition, which led to the intermission of the work begun under the auspices of Cyrus, are detailed in the fourth chapter of Ezra; but there were other causes in the temper of the Jews themselves tending to the same result. From the very first there had been despondency (Ezra 3 : 12), as well as a spirit of procrastination and self-indulgence (infr. verses 2, 4). Darius the king is the expression which a contemporary would naturally use. The compiler of the Book of Ezra, writing at a later period, calls him Darius, king of Persia (Ezra 4 : 5, 24). B. C.

1,2. The people excused their delay in finishing the temple, on the alleged ground that the time for it had not yet come. It has been supposed that they bolstered up this lame apology by their own construction of Jeremiah’s prophecy (25 : 12), which had named seventy years as the duration of the Captivity. As the temple was not destroyed until eighteen years after the first captives were taken away, and as only about fifteen years had passed, up to the first year of Darius, since the first captives returned, they perhaps persuaded themselves to think that the temple must lie desolate yet some three years longer, to complete its full period of seventy years. Men sometimes put constructions upon Scripture which God has neither put nor authorized, the ultimate cause being that they are but too well pleased to have it so. This may have been a case of the same sort. H. C.

3. This people.** Not My people, because by their neglect of God’s house they had forfeited their title to that name of privilege. B. C.

4. By this single ironical question, therefore, the prophet cuts away from them the ground on which they stood. They could not honestly plead that the times were too hard to allow them to build a house for God while they were erecting sumptuous houses, inlaid with cedar, for themselves. Cox.

5,6. The expressive form of the original is, “Set your heart on your ways”—i.e., look on your ways, not only thoughtfully, but solemnly, appreciating and realizing the significance of your course toward God, and of God’s toward you. Since they had dishonored God by neglecting His temple, He had scourged them by suspending His usual gifts of timely rain and sun. He appeals to them to note the facts of their own case, how they had prospered in nothing, and had toiled to small purpose. H. C.

6-11. The prophet now teaches them that the calamities under which they groaned were Divine judgments—not the results whether of the niggardliness of nature or the hostility of man; teaches them, too, that they can make no more fatal mistake than to wait for more prosperous times before they build, since they will never rise to prosperity until they have built a house for God, in which He may dwell among them. Starting with his favorite formula, “Set your heart upon your ways”—a formula which indicates a certain habitual thoughtfulness on the part of the prophet, and a thoughtfulness mainly bent on the laws of human life and conduct—he graphically depicts the misery of the time, its unsatisfied longings, its habitual dejection (verse 6). It would be hard to find words that more graphically set forth a time in which men got little by their toils, and had no heart to enjoy what little they got. In such a time they might well fling up their hands in despair, and cry, “All is vanity and vexation of spirit!” Instead of inciting them to despair, however, Haggai discloses the meaning and secret of their misery, and shows them the true remedy for it. Repeating his favorite formula, he once more summons them to a thoughtful review of their ways. If they ponder these things in their heart, they will discover why He has thus visited them; that it is because, while they could run with cheerful alacrity to get their own houses built or adorned, they had been content to let His house lie waste. If they have any doubt that this is the true cause of their broken and defeated hopes, let them put it to the proof. Let them prepare to build. Let them go up to the mountain—i.e., Lebanon, with its cedars—and fetch wood. Let them complete the temple, and then see whether God will not take pleasure in dwelling in it, and glorify Himself in their midst (verses 7-11). Cox.

The three causes which are apt to hinder our faithful zeal in building for the Lord—selfish sloth, unbelieving despondency and carnal security—are they not the bane also of our own spiritual life? The Lord will not, He cannot, bless us personally while we yield to these temptations to slackness in the business in which He would engage us—the business of seeking out from amid the world’s ruins stones for His living temple, doing what in us lies to build up Christ’s spiritual house, to win souls to Him, to feed His sheep and His lambs, helping them to abide in Him. R. S. Candlish.

12-15. It is pleasant to note that these messages from the Lord produced the desired result. The Lord stirred up the spirit of both rulers and people, and they took hold earnestly of the neglected work of rebuilding the temple. Twenty-four days sufficed to arouse them and to make the necessary preparations. The masses of the people were far more obedient to the voice of God than before the Captivity—furnishing yet another case of blessings coming through sore chastisement. H. C.

And as they began, the prophet brought them a new message from Jehovah—a message all the more impressive for its brevity (verse 13): “I am with you, saith the Lord.” According to the Hebrew conception, God was only with them when they had erected a palace for Him; but, for their encouragement, and that the joy of the Lord may be their strength, He announces Himself as already present, though some four years must elapse before His habitation will be complete. He will be with them while they build, that they may not fear what men can do against them—with them, to bless them when they labor for themselves as well as when they build for Him; so that the heaven shall no longer withhold its dew, nor the earth its fruit; but when they look for little, they shall behold much, and, instead of creeping about with dejected and hopeless hearts, they shall eat their bread with gladness, praising their God and King. Cox.

Chap. 2: 1-9. Conveys a message of encouragement, and a promise calculated to remove the natural despondency with which the Israelites regarded the meanness of their work, comparing it with what they had learned by the testimony of their forefathers as to the magnificence of Solomon’s Temple. The prophet announces, as from God, an approaching time, when the latter glory of the temple shall be greater than the former; and when the present

hostility of the surrounding nations shall be succeeded by security and peace. B. C.