Haggai Chapter 1

From The Open Bible Project

1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the Word of [1] Yahweh [See Haggai Footnotes 1] came by Haggai, the prophet, to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,

• The Argument - When the time of the seventy years captivity prophesied by Jeremiah was expired, God raised up Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, to comfort the Jews, and to exhort them to the building of the temple, which was a figure of the spiritual Temple and Church of God, whose perfection and excellency depended on Christ. And because all were given to their own pleasures and benefits, he declares that that plague of famine, which God then sent among them, was a just reward for their ingratitude, in that they condemned God’s honour, who had delivered them. Yet he comforts them, if they will return to the Lord, with the promise of great felicity, since the Lord will finish the work that he has begun, and send Christ whom he had promised, and by whom they would attain to perfect joy and glory.
• (a) Who was the son of Histaspis and the third king of the Persians, as some think.
• (b) Because the building of the temple began to cease, by reason that the people were discouraged by their enemies: and if these two notable men had need to be stirred up and admonished of their duties, what will we think of other governors, whose doings are either against God, or very cold in his cause?

1:2 "This is what Yahweh of Armies says: These people say, 'The time hasn't yet come, the time for Yahweh's house to be built.'"

• (c) Not that they condemned the building of it, but they preferred policy and personal profit to religion, being content with small beginnings.

1:3 Then the Word of Yahweh came by Haggai, the prophet, saying,

1:4 "Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?

• (d) Showing that they sought not only their necessities, but their very pleasures before God’s honour.

1:5 Now therefore this is what Yahweh of Armies says: Consider your ways.

1:6 You have sown much, and bring in little. You eat, but you don't have enough. You drink, but you aren't filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm, and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes in it."

• (e) Consider the plagues of God upon you for preferring your policies to his religion, and because you do not seek him above all else.

1:7 This is what Yahweh of Armies says: "Consider your ways.

1:8 Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified," says Yahweh.

• (f) Meaning, that they should leave their own benefits, and go forward in the building of God’s temple, and in the setting forth of his religion.
• (g) That is, I will hear your prayers according to my promise; (1 Kings 8:22,29).
• (h) That is, my glory will be set forth by you.

1:9 "You looked for much, and, behold, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says Yahweh of Armies, "Because of my house that lies waste, while each of you is busy with his own house.

• (i) And so bring it to nothing.

1:10 Therefore for your sake the heavens withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.

1:11 I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on that which the ground brings forth, on men, on livestock, and on all the labor of the hands."

1:12 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 Yahweh, their [2] God [See Haggai Footnotes 2], and the words of Haggai, the prophet, as Yahweh, their God, had sent him; and the people feared Yahweh.

• (k) This declares that God was the author of the doctrine, and that Haggai was but the minister, as in (Exodus 14:31), (Judges 7:20; Acts 15:28).

1:13 Then Haggai, Yahweh's messenger, spoke Yahweh's message to the people, saying, "I am with you," says Yahweh.

1:14 Yahweh 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 worked on the house of Yahweh of Armies, their God,

• (l) Which declares that men are unable and dull to serve the Lord, neither can they obey his word or his messengers, before God reforms their hearts, and gives them new spirits; (John 6:44).

1:15 in the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.