Ch. Haggai 1:1-11. The First Prophecy

1. Darius the king] Lit., Daryavesh. “Daryavesh is a more accurate transcript of the name of the Persian kings than Δαρεῖος (Darius). Darius calls himself in his descriptions Dâryavush, which means the ‘holder,’ or ‘supporter.’ ” Max. Müller in Pusey’s Book of Daniel, p. 570.

This was Darius the son of Hystaspes, who had deposed the impostor Smerdis and succeeded him on the throne of Persia, and who on his accession returned to the policy of Cyrus with reference to the Jews.

the sixth month] i.e., of the Jewish year. While they had kings of their own the Jewish historians were wont, as we see throughout the Books of Kings and Chronicles, to date events by the years of their reigns. Now that their own monarchy was at an end, they use instead the year of the foreign Sovereign to whom they were tributary. The transition is observable in ver. 8 of 2 Kings 25 as compared with ver. 1. But the months are still those of their own calendar. The sixth month was called Elul after the return from Babylon. (Nehemiah 6:15; 1Ma 14:27.)

by Haggai] Lit., by the hand of, i.e. by his means or instrumentality. And so in ver. 3.

Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel] Both in the history of the return in Ezra (Ezra 3:2; Ezra 3:8, Ezra 5:2) and Nehemiah (Nehemiah 12:1) and in the genealogies of our Lord, Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27, Zerubbabel is called as he is in this book the son of Shealtiel or Salathiel. But in 1 Chronicles 3:19 he is said to be the son of Pedaiah. The probable explanation of the discrepancy is that Shealtiel, who was the elder brother and the head of the family, had no sons of his own, and that consequently his nephew Zerubbabel, who was the eldest son of the younger brother Pedaiah, became the heir of his uncle Shealtiel, and was commonly regarded and described as his son. He was the recognised head of the Jews in Babylon, “the Prince of Judah,” as he is called (Ezra 1:8), at the time when the decree of Cyrus was issued for their return. He bears a leading part in the history of the return, and of the events which followed immediately upon it. He was among the first to respond to the prophetic call of Haggai and Zechariah (Haggai 1:12). Many of their prophecies were addressed to him by name (Haggai 1:1; Haggai 2:2; Haggai 2:21; Zechariah 4:6); and his spirit was specially stirred up by God (Haggai 1:14) to promote the reformation of the people and the rebuilding of the temple. He has been described as “a man inferior to few of the great characters of Scripture, whether we consider the perilous undertaking to which he devoted himself, the importance, in the economy of the Divine government, of his work, his courageous faith, or the singular distinction of being the object of so many and such remarkable prophetic utterances.” Smith’s Bible Dict. Art. Zerubbabel. The fact that his name Zerubbabel (“scattered to Babylon,” or “born at Babylon,” Gesenius) was changed, like those of Daniel and his companions, to the Chaldee name Sheshbazzar, as well as his appointment by Cyrus to the office of “Governor,” makes it probable, as has been suggested, that he was in the service of the king of Babylon. In the Apocryphal account of the return from Babylon contained in the first book of Esdras, Zerubbabel who is apparently regarded by the writer as a distinct person from Sheshbazzar (Sanabassar, 1Es 2:12), under whom the Jews returned in the time of Cyrus, is described as one of the young men who formed the body guard of king Darius. The story told is, that three of these young men agreed to compete before the king as to which of them could compose and write the wisest sentence. “The first wrote, Wine is the strongest. The second wrote, The king is strongest. The third wrote, Women are strongest: but above all things Truth beareth away the victory” (1Es 3:10-12). To this third sentence which was Zerubbabel’s, the king and his wise men awarded the palm, and its author, on being invited by the king to name his reward, claimed the fulfilment of the vow which Darius had made on his accession, to build Jerusalem and restore the holy vessels for the Temple. (See the story in full 1 Esdr. ch. 3, 4; and for the additions and variations of Josephus Dict. of the Bible, Art. Zerubbabel.)

governor] The foreign name (Pechah) here used for the “Governor” of the Jews is again a badge of their servitude. The word itself is an interesting one. It is first used in the Hebrew Bible in the time of Solomon (1 Kings 10:15; 2 Chronicles 9:14) of some “governors of the country” in his outlying dominions who sent him a yearly supply of gold. Even there it is probably a foreign title. “It seems to me most probable,” writes Dr Pusey, “that Solomon adopted the title, as it already existed in the Syrian territories, for it is not said that he ‘placed Pechahs,’ but only that they paid him gold. Thus the name ‘Rajah’ is continued in our Indian dominions.” We next find it when Benhadad after his first defeat is advised to depose the thirty-two subordinate kings who helped him, and to put Pechahs, Syrian Governors, in their place (1 Kings 20:24). “Then, still in that neighbourhood, and in part doubtless in the same country, they are in military command in Sennacherib’s army, leading doubtless their own contingent of troops, in his multitudinous host (2 Kings 18:24). Sennacherib compares Hezekiah to one of the ‘Governors’ of the subjugated provinces, which he held subdued (Comp. Isaiah 10:8-9; 2 Kings 18:34). Then, in each case joined with Sagans, Pechah is used of Babylonian, (Jeremiah 51:23; Jeremiah 51:57; Ezekiel 23:6; Ezekiel 23:23) and Median (Jeremiah 51:28) governors. Daniel, in recounting the Babylonian governors, places the Pechahs the third, after the Satraps and Sagans (Daniel 3:2-3; Daniel 3:27). Under Darius, they are not immediately united with the Sagans, but still are enumerated with these only, the Satraps and the haddaberin, ‘privy Councillors,’ Daniel 6:8. Somewhat later, (Esther 8:9; Esther 9:3) the Pechahs are mentioned without the Sagans, but with the Satraps and the ‘princes of the provinces.’ In the times after the captivity there were several such Pechahs, westward of the Euphrates, between it and Judea (Ezra 8:36; Nehemiah 2:7; Nehemiah 2:9), probably the same locality, in regard to which the name was first used under Solomon. Specifically, Tatnai is entitled as ‘Pechah beyond the river,’ Ezra 5:3; Ezra 6:6, who (although apparently he dwelt at Jerusalem, Nehemiah 3:7) is yet, in the same rescript of Darius, distinguished from ‘the Pechah of the Jews’ (Ezra 6:7), whom naturally there was most occasion to mention (Haggai 1:1; Haggai 1:14; Haggai 2:2; Haggai 2:21; Malachi 1:8; Nehemiah 5:14; Nehemiah 5:18; Nehemiah 12:26).” Pusey, Book of Daniel, p. 567; where also the possible connection of Pechah with Pashah is discussed by Max Müller.

2. speaketh] Lit. saith, the same word as throughout the verse.

this people] possibly used as a term of reproach: comp. ch. Haggai 2:14; Isaiah 8:11-12.

the time is not come] Lit., not time to come. The sentence is evidently elliptical, and there is much difference of opinion as to what should be supplied. The simplest way of taking it appears to be, “it is not (yet) the time (for it, i.e. the matter in hand, or proposed undertaking) to come.” Then what that matter or undertaking is, is explained in the next clause, “the time of the House of Jehovah, for it to be built.” The LXX., however, and other Ancient Versions render, The time is not come for the Lord’s house to be built. R. V. margin.

It has been thought by some, that in saying the time was not come the Jews meant to allege, that the seventy years of desolation which had been predicted were not yet fulfilled. But if that had really been the case their excuse would have been valid. “There was indeed,” as Pusey observes, “a second fulfilment of seventy years, from the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, b.c. 586, to its consecration in the sixth year of Darius, b.c. 516. But this was through the wilfulness of man prolonging the desolation decreed by God, and Jeremiah’s prophecy relates to the people not to the temple.” It is clear from the sharp rebuke here administered, and from the severe judgments with which their procrastination had been visited (ver. 6, 9–11), that the excuse was idle and the delay worldly and culpable.

4. for you, O ye] Lit., for you, you: you, yourselves, R. V. The repetition of the pronoun is emphatic, “you are the people I mean;” or you in implied contrast to Almighty God, comp. 1 Samuel 25:24, where Abigail, anxious to appease David’s anger at the churlishness of Nabal, exclaims, “upon me, my Lord, I (am the person at fault), let this iniquity be.”

your cieled houses] Lit. your houses cieled, i.e. your houses (and they too) cieled. The adjective thus added without an article has the force of a predicate and so becomes emphatic. With the article it would form part of the subject. Comp. Psalm 143:10 : “Let Thy Spirit good (as it is, and therefore ready to help and guide the sinful and infirm), lead me,” &c. The translators in A. V., feeling the force of the adjective as a predicate, have broken the first part of the sentence into a separate proposition, “Thy Spirit is good, lead me,” &c. The Prayer-Book version is, “Let thy loving Spirit lead me,” &c.

cieled] Lit. covered or boarded. The word is used with reference to the roof of the Temple, which was high-pitched like our modern roofs, and cieled with boards within. “He covered the house with beams (rafters) and boards of cedar,” 1 Kings 6:9. It is also used of the cieling with boards of Solomon’s house of the forest of Lebanon, 1 Kings 7:3, and of some kind of covering or boarding (the passage is obscure) of his “Porch of Judgment,” 1 Kings 7:7. The practice was luxurious and magnificent even in a king (Jeremiah 22:14). Yet they who professed themselves unable to restore the House of the Lord were indulging in it in their own houses. They built costly houses for themselves, even using, it may be, to decorate them, the cedar wood which had been brought for the Temple (Ezra 3:7; Dict. of the Bible, Art. Zerubbabel), and had grown indifferent to the ruin and desolation of the House of God.

5. Consider] Lit. set your heart upon, consider both their nature and (as what follows shews) their consequences; both what they are and to what they lead. The expression consider, set your heart, is used by Haggai no fewer than four times in this short book, Haggai 1:5; Haggai 1:7, Haggai 2:15; Haggai 2:18.

6. Ye have sown much, &c.] The expostulation is very abrupt and forcible in the Hebrew, “Ye sowed much, but to bring in little! To eat, but not to satiety! To drink, but not to exhilaration! To clothe (oneself), but not for warmth, to him (the wearer)!” The description refers not to one year, but to many. It coincides with the whole period of their sloth and neglect in the matter of the Temple. It points to a double judgment, dearth and scarcity in the fruits of the ground, and (what often accompanies this, for the same adverse influences which blight the earth are injurious to the human frame) want of power in the body of man, to assimilate and benefit by food and drink and clothing.

he that earneth wages] The judgment is not confined to the fruits of the earth, but extends to all branches of human industry. Disappointment and loss mar all alike. “The labour pictured is not only fruitless, but wearisome and vexing. There is a seeming result of all the labour, something to allure hopes; but forthwith it is gone. The heathen assigned a like baffling of hope as one of the punishments of hell.” Pusey.

8. Go up to the mountain] The consideration to which they have twice been called is to lead to action and amendment. They are not only to repent, but to bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

the mountain] This is clearly not, as some have thought, the mountain on which the Temple stood, “the mountain of the Lord’s house,” but the mountain from which the timber for building was to be fetched. It might possibly mean Lebanon, from which they were to cause wood to be brought, qui facit per alium facit per se, but the words sound more like a call to immediate personal effort, and then the mountain would be the mountainous neighbourhood generally (hill country, R. V. margin), to which they were themselves to go and bring wood. See Nehemiah 2:8, where “the king’s forest” would seem to have been in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem; and Nehemiah 8:15, where possibly “the mount” means the Mount of Olives.

I will be glorified] “The meaning may be either, ‘I will accept it as done for My glory’; or, ‘I will display My glory in it’ (see ch. Haggai 2:9).” Annotated Paragraph Bible, Rel. Tract. Soc.

9. Ye looked for much, &c.] Lit. to look (there was looking) for much, and (it came) to little! Emphatic as ver. 6, where see note. A double blight and curse had come upon them. They had looked for much, had expected a plentiful harvest, and perhaps the appearance of the crops had warranted the expectation. But when they came to gather it in they found the actual yield but little, less even perhaps than they had originally sown. Pusey quotes the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah, i.e. one tenth of what was sown, Isaiah 5:10. And when this little was brought home into the garner, even that melted away by mildew or waste or loss. God did but blow upon it with the breath of His displeasure, and lo it was gone, as though instead of solid grain it had been chaff of the summer threshingfloor.

and ye run, &c.] while ye run, R. V., with eager zeal and interest to build and adorn it. See ver. 4. The word run is used in the same figurative way in Psalm 119:32; Proverbs 1:16.

9–11. Having pointed out in ver. 8 the way of amendment and prosperity, the prophet resumes in these verses the expostulation of vv. 4–6, and again insists upon the depressed condition of the people and its cause.

10. the heaven over you, &c.] Lit. upon you are stayed the heavens. Some understand by “upon” or “against” you, “on your account,” on account of, or in punishment of your sins (for your sake, R. V. text). But there would be something of tautology in this, because the same thing has been said in the first word of the verse, “therefore” (on account of what has been mentioned in the preceding verses) has this judgment come upon you. It is better therefore to take it, as in A. V., and R. V. margin, “the heaven over you.” Compare the terms in which the judgment had been threatened by Moses, “thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass,” Deuteronomy 28:23.

from dew] not rain only, but even dew had been withholden. “Coeli non solum pluviam non dederunt, sed ne rorem quidem, quo arentes agri saltem humore modico temperarentur.” Hieron. We must not forget how copious, and therefore how important to the husbandman, especially in the absence of rain, was the dew in Palestine. “In a latitude so high as ours, and which yet has a mean temperature higher than its degrees should give it, the chill of the night serves only to shed fog or mist upon the lower stratum of air; but in warmer climates—and in no country is it more so than in Syria—the vast burden of the watery element, which the fervour of day has raised aloft, becomes, quickly after sunset, a prodigious dew, breaking down upon the earth, as a mighty yet noiseless deluge.” Isaac Taylor, Spirit of Heb. Poetry, c. IV. pp. 85, 86.

11. a drought] The Jewish commentators have observed a paronomasia or play on words, as between the fault and the punishment. My house is “waste” (charçb, ver. 4, 9), through your neglect, and your punishment shall be a “drought” (choreb). “Quasi dicat; quia aedem meam vastam relinquitis, ego quoque in omnia vestra vastitatem immittam.” Rosenm.

labour] The word here used means properly wearisome labour, toil (Genesis 31:42). It is κόπος rather than ἔργον. Here of course it means the product of labour.

Ch. Haggai 1:12-15. The Effects of the Prophecy

12. the remnant of the people] i.e. not the rest or remainder of the people beside Zerubbabel and Joshua, who had been mentioned by name, but “the remnant” in what came to be a technical use of the word, that part of the nation, a remnant only in comparison of the whole, which returned from the captivity in Babylon.

and the words] some would render according to the words, but the A. V. gives a satisfactory sense, and the construction is borne out by Jeremiah 26:5; Jeremiah 35:15.

did fear] The word is used in its usual O. T. sense to denote the spirit of true religion. There was genuine conversion on the part of the people, they yielded, not the unwilling obedience of terror, but the hearty service of godly fear.

13. messenger] The word is that commonly used for an angel in the O.T., but its first and proper meaning is messenger. In the same way in the N.T., the same word (ἄγγελος) is used generally in its restricted sense for an angel, and occasionally in its wider sense for a messenger (Luke 7:27; Luke 9:52; James 2:25). Haggai is the only prophet who uses this title of himself. It is, to say the least, doubtful whether Moses as a prophet is intended by it in Numbers 20:16. Malachi (“my angel or messenger”) has it for the only name by which we know him, and he uses it of the Jewish priest (Malachi 2:7), and of John Baptist the forerunner of our Lord, and of our Lord Himself, “the messenger of the Covenant” (Malachi 3:1).

I am with you] Lit. I with you. This short but all-sufficient promise, varied sometimes by the corresponding expression of faith, “God with us,” or by the record of its fulfilment, “Jehovah was with him,” shines out like a bright star in times of darkness and need to individual saints, and to the Church at large in the O.T. It is given to Jacob at Bethel at the outset of his journey (Genesis 28:15); to Moses at the Bush, when called to be the deliverer of his people (Exodus 3:12); to Joshua, when he took up for completion the unfinished work of Moses (Joshua 1:5); to Jeremiah at his entrance on the difficult work of prophesying (Jeremiah 1:8). It was fulfilled to Joseph when sold a slave into Egypt (Genesis 39:2), and when made a prisoner there on a false accusation (ver. 21). It was the battle-cry of the Church when threatened with the invasion of the proud Assyrian (Isaiah 8:10), and the refrain of her song of victory when the Assyrian was overthrown (Psalm 46:7; Psalm 46:11). In the N. T. it finds its full accomplishment in Him who is “Emmanuel, God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Here Haggai sums up the promise of all needful resources for the work, and protection from the jealous foes who had so long hindered it, and conveys the assurance of a prosperous issue in the few short words, “I with you, saith Jehovah.”

14. the Lord stirred up, &c.] It would seem that the prevailing indifference and neglect by which they were surrounded had, in some measure at least, damped the ardour and quenched the spirit even of Zerubbabel and Joshua. It needed the same breath of heaven which had first kindled the fire of divine zeal in their hearts, to rouse the now smouldering embers into living flame again (ἀναζωπυρεῖν τὸ χάρισμα, 2 Timothy 1:6).

came and did work] The word “came,” may here be little more than pleonastic, but perhaps it refers to the coming of the people from the neighbouring towns and country to Jerusalem, as we know they did when the altar was first set up (Ezra 3:1). They “did,” or executed work (the word work is here a noun, not a verb) in the rebuilding of the Temple. Comp. Ezra 5:1-2.

15. The note of time in this verse (which obviously belongs to this chapter, and not as in some editions both of Heb. and LXX. and in some MSS. to the next) seems designed to shew how prompt the response was to the prophet’s call. Only twenty-three days, little more that is than three weeks, had sufficed to make all necessary preparations, and summon workmen from all the neighbourhood to resume the work (ch. Haggai 1:1).