Haggai 1

Hag 1:1-15.

HAGGAI

CALLS THE

PEOPLE TO

CONSIDER

THEIR

WAYS IN

NEGLECTING TO

BUILD

GOD'S

HOUSE:

THE

EVIL OF

THIS

NEGLECT TO

THEMSELVES:

THE

HONOR TO

GOD OF

ATTENDING TO

IT:

THE

PEOPLE'S

PENITENT

OBEDIENCE UNDER

ZERUBBABEL

FOLLOWED BY

GOD'S

GRACIOUS

ASSURANCE.

1. second year of Darius--Hystaspes, the king of Medo-Persia, the

second of the world empires, Babylon having been overthrown by the

Persian Cyrus. The Jews having no king of their own, dated by the reign

of the world kings to whom they were subject. Darius was a common name

of the Persian kings, as Pharaoh of those of Egypt, and Cæsar of those

of Rome. The name in the cuneiform inscriptions at Persepolis is written

Daryawus, from the root Darh, "to preserve," the Conservator

[LASSEN].

HERODOTUS [6.98] explains it Coercer. Often opposite

attributes are assigned to the same god; in which light the Persians

viewed their king.

Ezr 4:24

harmonizes with Haggai in making this year the date of the resumption

of the building.

sixth month--of the Hebrew year, not of Darius' reign (compare

Zec 1:7; 7:1, 3; 8:19).

Two months later ("the eighth month,"

Zec 1:1)

Zechariah began to prophesy, seconding Haggai.

the Lord--Hebrew,

JEHOVAH: God's covenant title, implying His

unchangeableness, the guarantee of His faithfulness in keeping His

promises to His people.

speaker, His prophet but the instrument (compare

Ac 7:35;

Ga 3:19).

Zerubbabel--called also Shesh-bazzar in

Ezr 1:8; 5:14, 16,

where the same work is attributed to Shesh-bazzar that in

Ezr 3:8

is attributed to Zerubbabel. Shesh-bazzar is probably his

Chaldean name; as Belteshazzar was that of Daniel. Zerubbabel,

his Hebrew name, means "one born in Babylon."

son of Shealtiel--or Salathiel. But

1Ch 3:17, 19

makes Pedaiah his father. Probably he was adopted by his uncle

Salathiel, or Shealtiel, at the death of his father (compare

Mt 1:12;

Lu 3:27).

governor of Judah--to which office Cyrus had appointed him. The

Hebrew Pechah is akin to the original of the modern Turkish Pasha; one ruling a region of the Persian empire of less extent than that under

a satrap.

Joshua--called Jeshua

(Ezr 2:2);

so the son of Nun in

Ne 8:17.

Josedech--or Jehozadak

(1Ch 6:15),

one of those carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar. Haggai addresses the

civil and the religious representatives of the people, so as to have

them as his associates in giving God's commands; thus priest, prophet,

and ruler jointly testify in God's name.

2. the Lord of hosts--Jehovah, Lord of the powers of heaven and earth,

and therefore requiring implicit obedience.

This people--"This" sluggish and selfish "people." He does not say,

My people, since they had neglected the service of God.

The time--the proper time for building the temple. Two out of the

seventy predicted years of captivity (dating from the destruction of the

temple, 558 B.C.,

2Ki 25:9)

were yet unexpired; this they make their plea for delay [HENDERSON]. The seventy years of captivity were completed

long ago in the first year of Cyrus, 536 B.C.

(Jer 29:10);

dating from 606 B.C., Jehoiakim's captivity

(2Ch 36:6).

The seventy years to the completion of the temple

(Jer 25:12)

were completed this very year, the second of Darius [VATABLUS]. Ingenious in excuses, they pretended that the

interruption in the work caused by their enemies proved it was not

yet the proper time; whereas their real motive was selfish dislike

of the trouble, expense, and danger from enemies. "God," say they,

"hath interposed many difficulties to punish our rash haste" [CALVIN]. Smerdis' interdict was no longer in force, now

that Darius the rightful king was on the throne; therefore they had no

real excuse for not beginning at once to build. AUBERLEN denies that by "Artaxerxes" in

Ezr 4:7-22

is meant Smerdis. Whether Smerdis or Artaxerxes Longimanus be meant,

the interdict referred only to the rebuilding of the city, which

the Persian kings feared might, if rebuilt, cause them trouble to

subdue; not to the rebuilding of the temple. But the Jews were

easily turned aside from the work. Spiritually, like the Jews, men do

not say they will never be religious, but, It is not time yet. So the

great work of life is left undone.

4. Is it time--It is not time

(Hag 1:2),

ye say, to build Jehovah's house; yet how is it that ye make it a fit

time not only to build, but to "dwell" at ease in your own

houses?

you, O ye--rather, for "you, you"; the repetition marking the shameful

contrast between their concern for themselves, and their unconcern

for God [MAURER]. Compare a similar repetition in

1Sa 25:24;

Zec 7:5.

ceiled--rather, "wainscoted," or "paneled," referring to the walls as

well as the ceilings; furnished not only with comfort but luxury, in sad

contrast to God's house not merely unadorned, but the very walls not

raised above the foundations. How different David's feelings

(2Sa 7:2)!

5. Consider your ways--literally, "Set your heart" on your ways. The

plural implies, Consider both what ye have done (actively,

La 3:40)

and what ye have suffered (passively) [JEROME].

Ponder earnestly whether ye have gained by seeking self at the

sacrifice of God.

6. Nothing has prospered with you while you neglected your duty to

God. The punishment corresponds to the sin. They thought to escape

poverty by not building, but keeping their money to themselves; God

brought it on them for not building

(Pr 13:7; 11:24;

Mt 6:33).

Instead of cheating God, they had been only cheating themselves.

ye clothe . . . but . . . none warm--through insufficiency of clothing;

as ye are unable through poverty from failure of your crops to purchase

sufficient clothing. The verbs are infinitive, implying a

continued state: "Ye have sown, and been bringing in but little;

ye have been eating, but not to being satisfied; ye have

been drinking, but not to being filled; ye have been putting on clothes, but not to being warmed"

[MOORE]. Careful consideration

of God's dealings with us will indicate God's will regarding us. The

events of life are the hieroglyphics in which God records His feelings

towards us, the key to which is found in the Bible

[MOORE].

wages . . . put . . . into a bag with

holes--proverbial for labor and money spent profitlessly

(Zec 8:10;

compare

Isa 55:2;

Jer 2:13).

Contrast, spiritually, the "bags that wax not old, the treasure in

heaven that faileth not"

(Lu 12:33).

Through the high cost of necessaries, those who wrought for a day's

wages parted with them at once, as if they had put them into a bag with

holes.

8. Go up to the mountain--Moriah

[ROSENMULLER]; Lebanon

[HENDERSON].

Rather, generally, the mountains around, now covered with wood, the

growth of the long period of the captivity. So

Ne 8:15,

"Go forth unto the mount," that is, the neighboring hills

[MAURER].

wood--Haggai specifies this as being the first necessary; not to

the exclusion of other materials. Stones also were doubtless

needed. That the old walls were not standing, as the Hebrew

interpreters quoted by JEROME state, or the new

walls partly built, appears from

Hag 2:18,

where express mention is made of laying the foundations.

I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified--I will be

propitious to suppliants in it

(1Ki 8:30),

and shall receive the honor due to Me which has been withheld. In

neglecting the temple, which is the mirror of My presence, ye dishonor

Me [CALVIN]; in its being built, ye shall glorify

Me.

9. Ye looked for much--literally, "looked" so as to turn your

eyes "to much." The Hebrew infinitive here expresses

continued looking. Ye hoped to have your store made "much" by

neglecting the temple. The greater was your greediness, the more bitter

your disappointment in being poorer than ever.

when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it--even the little crop

brought into your barns I dissipated. "I did blow upon," that is, I

scattered and caused to perish with My mere breath, as scattered and

blighted corn.

mine house . . . his own house--in emphatic antithesis.

ye run--expressing the keenness of everyone of them in pursuing their

own selfish interests. Compare "run,"

Ps 119:32;

Pr 1:16,

contrasted with their apathy about God's house.

10. heaven . . . is stayed from dew--literally, "stays

itself." Thus heaven or the sky is personified; implying that inanimate

nature obeys Jehovah's will; and, shocked at His people's disobedience,

withholds its goods from them (compare

Jer 2:12, 13).

11. I called--what the "heaven" and "earth," the second causes, were

said to do

(Hag 1:10),

being the visible instruments, Jehovah, in this verse, the

invisible first cause, declares to be His doing. He "calls for" famine,

&c., as instruments of His wrath

(2Ki 8:1;

Ps 105:16).

The contrast is striking between the prompt obedience of these material

agencies, and the slothful disobedience of living men, His people.

drought--Hebrew, Choreb, like in sound to Chareeb, "waste"

(Hag 1:4, 9),

said of God's house; implying the correspondence between the sin and

its punishment. Ye have let My house be waste, and I will send

on all that is yours a wasting drought. This would affect not

merely the "corn," &c., but also "men" and "cattle," who must perish in

the absence of the "corn," &c., lost by the drought.

labour of the hands--all the fruits of lands, gardens, and vineyards,

obtained by labor of the hands

(De 28:33;

Ps 78:46).

12. remnant of the people--all those who have returned from the exile

(Zec 8:6).

as . . . God sent him--according to all that Jehovah had enjoined him

to speak. But as it is not till

Hag 1:14

after Haggai's second message

(Hag 1:13)

that the people actually obeyed, MAURER

translates here, "hearkened to the voice of the Lord," and

instead of "as," "because the Lord had sent him." However,

English Version rightly represents their purpose of

obedience as obedience in God's eyes already, though not carried into

effect till

Hag 1:14.

13. the Lord's messenger--so the priests

(Mal 2:7)

are called (compare

Ga 4:14;

2Pe 1:21).

in the Lord's message--by the Lord's authority and commission: on

the Lord's embassage.

I am with you--

(Mt 28:20).

On the people showing the mere disposition to obey, even before they

actually set to work, God passes at once from the reproving tone to

that of tenderness. He hastens as it were to forget their former

unfaithfulness, and to assure them, when obedient, that He both is

and will be with them: Hebrew, "I with you!" God's presence

is the best of blessings, for it includes all others. This is the sure

guarantee of their success no matter how many their foes might be

(Ro 8:31).

Nothing more inspirits men and rouses them from torpor, than, when

relying on the promises of divine aid, they have a sure hope of a

successful issue [CALVIN].

14. Lord stirred up the spirit of, &c.--God gave them alacrity and

perseverance in the good work, though slothful in themselves. Every good

impulse and revival of religion is the direct work of God by His Spirit.

came and did work--collected the wood and stones and other materials

(compare

Hag 1:8)

for the work. Not actually built or "laid the (secondary) foundations"

of the temple, for this was not done till three months after, namely,

the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month

(Hag 2:18)

[GROTIUS].

15. four and twentieth day--twenty-three days after the first message

of Haggai

(Hag 1:1).