Haggai 2

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the LORD's message came through Haggai the prophet. This is what he said:

1In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying,

NoteThe seventh month of the Hebrew calendar falls in our September–October; this is 520 BC. The twenty-first day was the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, a week-long autumn harvest festival kept at the sanctuary, so the crowd Haggai addresses is standing at a half-built temple during the very festival Solomon had once used to dedicate the first one.

2"Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the rest of the people who are left. Tell them this:

2Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying,

NoteZerubbabel was the Persian-appointed governor of Judah, which was at this date a small province of the Persian empire; he was also a descendant of the old royal house of David. "Josedech" is the King James spelling of Jehozadak. The high priest was the chief priest, in charge of the temple, its sacrifices and its personnel. "The rest of the people who are left" refers to the remnant who had returned from exile in Babylon, where the population of Judah had been deported some sixty-six years earlier.

3'Is anyone still here among you who saw this house when it had its first glory? And how does it look to you now? Doesn't it seem like nothing to you compared to that?'

3Who 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?

NoteThe first temple was the one built by Solomon, destroyed by the Babylonian army in 586 BC, sixty-six years before this speech. Anyone who could actually remember it would have been at least seventy years old.

4But now be strong, Zerubbabel, says the LORD. Be strong, Joshua son of Josedech, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, says the LORD. Get to work, because I am with you, says the LORD of Hosts.

4Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, 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 hosts:

Note"LORD of Hosts" translates a title meaning roughly "the LORD of armies", the massed forces of heaven at his command. It recurs throughout this chapter as a formal, weighty way of naming God. "People of the land" here simply means the ordinary population, as opposed to the two leaders just named.

5This is the promise I made with you when you came out of Egypt, and my Spirit stays among you. Do not be afraid.

5According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so my spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not.

NoteThe reference is to the agreement (covenant) God made with Israel after bringing them out of slavery in Egypt, centuries before, a binding arrangement with obligations on both sides, the founding event of the nation.

6This is what the LORD of Hosts says: Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.

6For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;

NoteShaking heaven, earth, sea and dry land is stock language in Hebrew poetry for God intervening visibly in the world; it pictures the whole created order trembling, as at an earthquake or storm, when God acts.

7I will shake all the nations, and what all the nations desire will come. And I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of Hosts.

7And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "what all the nations desire" is genuinely ambiguous, and translators divide over it. The noun is singular ("the desirable thing" or "the treasure") but the verb attached to it is plural, so it may mean the desirable goods, the wealth, of all the nations flowing in, or a single desired object or person coming. The King James keeps the singular; most modern versions take it as treasure.

8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of Hosts.

8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.

9The glory of this house in its later days will be greater than its glory before, says the LORD of Hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the LORD of Hosts."

9The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

Note"Peace" translates shalom, which covers far more than the absence of fighting: wholeness, safety, prosperity, everything being as it should be.

10On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of King Darius, the LORD's message came through Haggai the prophet:

10In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

NoteThe ninth month falls in our November–December; Darius is Darius I, king of Persia, and his second year is 520 BC. This message comes about three months after the one in verse 1.

11This is what the LORD of Hosts says: "Ask the priests for a ruling from the law. Ask them this:

11Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,

NotePriests served as the legal authorities on questions of ritual purity, and a formal question put to them for a binding answer was a recognized procedure. Haggai is not asking for an opinion but requesting an official ruling from the law of Moses.

12If a man is carrying meat set apart for God in a fold of his robe, and that fold touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any other food, does that food become holy?" The priests answered, "No."

12If 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 be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

Note"Meat set apart for God" is flesh from a sacrificed animal, which became holy, restricted to sacred use and to the priests. Robes of the period had no pockets; a loose fold of cloth at the chest or hem was used to carry things. The question is technical: does holiness pass on at second hand, from the meat to the cloth to something the cloth touches? The priests rule that it does not.

13Then Haggai asked, "If a person who has been made unclean by touching a dead body touches any of these things, does that thing become unclean?" The priests answered, "Yes, it becomes unclean."

13Then 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 be unclean.

NoteContact with a human corpse was the most serious form of ritual uncleanness in Israelite law, leaving a person unclean for seven days and requiring a specific washing ritual to remove it. Unlike holiness, that uncleanness did spread by contact, which is the point of the contrast.

14Then Haggai said, "That is how this people and this nation are in my sight, says the LORD, and that is how everything they make with their hands is. Whatever they offer there is unclean.

14Then 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 unclean.

Note"Whatever they offer there" means the sacrifices being made at the altar on the temple site, where offerings had resumed even though the building itself lay unfinished.

15Now think carefully about how things have gone, from today and looking back, to the time before one stone was set on another in the temple of the LORD.

15And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "from this day and upward," an idiom meaning to look back over the time already past, not forward.

16In those days, when someone came to a pile of grain expecting twenty measures, there were only ten. When someone came to the winepress to draw off fifty containers, there were only twenty.

16Since those days were, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten: when one came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.

NoteThe King James "twenty measures" and "fifty vessels" render two standard units. The grain measure is the ephah, roughly twenty liters or half a bushel; the liquid measure is the bath, roughly twenty-two liters or six gallons. The winepress was a hewn stone basin where grapes were trodden, with the juice running off into a lower vat to be drawn out.

17I struck all the work of your hands with blight, with mildew, and with hail, and still you did not turn back to me, says the LORD.

17I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.

NoteBlight is crop damage from scorching dry wind, mildew a fungal rot from damp; together with hail these three form a standard list of agricultural disasters in Israel's law, named there as consequences of breaking the covenant.

18Think carefully about this day and the days before it. Today is the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the day the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Think carefully about it.

18Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider it.

NoteWork on the rebuilding had already restarted some three months earlier. This date probably marks a formal ceremony of refounding or rededicating the building rather than the first stone being moved.

19Is there any seed still left in the barn? The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced fruit. But from this day on I will bless you."

19Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.

NoteIn December the autumn sowing is done, so the grain bins are empty and the seed is in the ground; the vine, fig, pomegranate and olive, the standard fruit crops of the region, are months away from bearing. At this moment in the year there is nothing yet visible to judge the coming harvest by.

20The LORD's message came to Haggai a second time on that same twenty-fourth day of the month:

20And again the word of the LORD came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying,

21"Say to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah: I am going to shake the heavens and the earth.

21Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I will shake the heavens and the earth;

22I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn chariots and the men who ride in them. Horses and their riders will fall, each one by the sword of his fellow soldier.

22And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; 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 his brother.

NoteChariots were the elite strike force of ancient armies, the most expensive and prestigious part of a kingdom's military. "Each one by the sword of his fellow soldier" describes an army thrown into panic and cutting itself to pieces, a recurring picture in Israel's battle stories of an enemy destroyed without Israel having to fight.

23On that day, says the LORD of Hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant, says the LORD, and I will make you like my signet ring, because I have chosen you, says the LORD of Hosts."

23In 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.

NoteA signet ring carried an engraved seal that its owner pressed into soft clay or wax to stamp documents with his personal mark. It functioned as a signature and a delegation of authority, was kept on the hand or on a cord at the neck, and was never lent out. A century earlier the prophet Jeremiah had said of Zerubbabel's grandfather, King Jehoiachin, that even if he were a signet ring on God's right hand he would be pulled off and handed to the Babylonians; the image here reverses that wording.