Haggai 2:1
_In, &c. This should be joined with the preceding chapter. (Calmet) --- They began the new work at this time, and on the 21st of the seventh month the prophet had a fresh revelation. (Worthington)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_In, &c. This should be joined with the preceding chapter. (Calmet) --- They began the new work at this time, and on the 21st of the seventh month the prophet had a fresh revelation. (Worthington)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Glory. The temple had been destroyed sixty-nine years before, so that many might have seen it. When the second temple was dedicated, (Calmet) or founded, (Haydock) two years after the captivity, cries of grief and of joy were heard, 1 Esdras iii. 12._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Little. Christ was born 515 years afterwards. The world had been disturbed by Alexander and by the Romans, yet peace then prevailed. All nature acknowledged the power of Jesus Christ, and the world was reformed. Another commotion will take place at his second coming. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Desired. Jacob styles him the expectation of nations, (Genesis xlix.) because He was wanting, and always necessary for all. (Worthington) --- Thus the sick desire a remedy, though they know not what it is. The Gentiles were ignorant of the Messias; yet he was still desirable and most lovely, Cantic... [ Continue Reading ]
Peace: another title of the Messias. His presence ennobles this temple (Calmet) more than precious ornaments of gold and silver (ver. 9.) did that of Solomon. (Haydock) --- Some have pretended that the second temple, repaired by Herod, was more spacious and magnificent than the former. It also subsi... [ Continue Reading ]
_The law. "He who knows it not, shews himself to be no priest of the Lord," Deuteronomy xvii. (St. Jerome)_... [ Continue Reading ]
No, conformably to Leviticus vi. 27. (Menochius) --- What the linen covered could not render other things sacred. The victim must come in immediate contact with them, to have this effect. (Haydock) --- Those who had touched the dead, rendered both holy and common things unclean for others. There wer... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER II. _ By occasion of a soul. That is, by having touched the dead: in which case, according to the prescription of the law, (Numbers xix. 13, 22.) a person not only became unclean himself, but made everything that he touched unclean. The prophet applies all this to the people, whose souls re... [ Continue Reading ]
_So. He makes the application of the second answer given, ver. 14. All your victims have hitherto been contaminated. I redressed not your miseries. But now, as you have begun to work at my temple, I will remove the scourge. It is easy to apply the first answer, ver. 13. Your victims have purified yo... [ Continue Reading ]
Day, the 24th of the ninth month, when you began to build, ver. 19. Henceforward your crops shall be abundant. (Menochius) --- I judge not from natural appearances, as the corn is still in the granary, ver. 20. (Calmet) --- Upon a stone. The foundations had been laid the year after the Jews returned... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bushels. Hebrew specifies nothing. Septuagint, "when you put a basket (or vase) twenty sata of barley." He speaks of such as was not yet winnowed._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Sprung up. Hebrew, "in the granary," or cave, magura, whence the African mangaria, or huts, are derived. Chaldean and Septuagint, "barn floor," as it was commonly adjoining to these huts. Some have, "in blade." But this seems to be the sense: the corn is not yet sown, nor the trees in blossom, yet... [ Continue Reading ]
Earth. Some great event is denoted. Nothing occurs in history after the second year of Darius, to shew that Zorobabel signalized himself. Theodoret thinks that the irruption of the Scythians, or of Gog, is meant. Others believe (Calmet) that the prophecy relates to Christ, at his first (St. Cyril) o... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Zorobabel. This promise principally relates to Christ, who was of the race of Zorobabel. (Challoner)_... [ Continue Reading ]