IN THE SEVENTH MONTH, IN THE ONE AND TWENTIETH DAY OF THE MONTH - This was the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles, Leviticus 23:34, Leviticus 23:36, Leviticus 23:40. and its close. The eighth day was to be a sabbath, with its “holy convocation,” but the commemorative feast, the dwelling in boot... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS LEFT AMONG YOU? - The question implies that there were those among them, who had seen the first house in its glory, yet but few. When the foundations of the first temple were laid, there were many Ezra 3:12. “Many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, ancient men, that had seen... [ Continue Reading ]
YET NOW BE STRONG ... AND WORK - They are the words with which David exhorted Solomon his son to be earnest and to persevere in the building of the first temple 1 Chronicles 28:10. “Take heed now, for the Lord hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong and do” 1 Chronicles 28:20... [ Continue Reading ]
THE WORDS WHICH I COVENANTED - The words stand more forcibly, because abruptly. It is an exclamation which cannot be forced into any grammatical relation with the preceding. The more exact idiom would have been “Remember,” “take to heart.” But the prophet points to it the more energetically, because... [ Continue Reading ]
YET ONCE, IT IS A LITTLE WHILE - This, the rendering of Paul to the Hebrews, is alone grammatical . “Yet once.” By the word yet he looks back to the first great shaking of the moral world, when God’s revelation by Moses and to His people broke upon the darkness of the pagan world, to be a monument a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME - The words can only mean this, the central longing of all nations He whom they longed for, either through the knowledge of Him spread by the Jews in their dispersion, or mutely by the aching craving of the human heart, longing for the restoration from its de... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SILVER IS MINE, AND THE GOLD IS MINE - These words, which have occasioned some to think, that God, in speaking of the glory with which He should fill the house, meant our material riches, suggest the contrary. For silver was no ornament of the temple of Solomon. Everything was overlaid with gold... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GLORY OF THIS LATTER HOUSE SHALL BE GREATER THAN OF THE FORMER - or, perhaps, more probably, “the later glory of this house shall be greater than the former;” for he had already spoken of the present temple, as identical with that before the captivity . “Who is left among you that saw this house... [ Continue Reading ]
ASK NOW THE PRIESTS CONCERNING THE LAW - The priests answer rightly, that, by the law, insulated unholiness spread further than insulated holiness. The flesh of the sacrifice hallowed whatever it should touch, but not further; but the human being, who was defiled by touching a dead body, defiled all... [ Continue Reading ]
AND NOW, I PRAY YOU - Observe his tenderness, in drawing their attention to it , “Consider from this day and upward.” He bids them look backward, “from before a stone was laid upon a stone,” i. e., from the last moment of their neglect in building the house of God; “from since those days were,” or f... [ Continue Reading ]
I SMOTE YOU WITH BLASTING AND MILDEW, - two diseases of grain, which Moses had foretold Deuteronomy 28:27. as chastisements on disobedience and God’s infliction, of which Amos had spoken in these self-same words. Amos 4:9. Haggai adds the hail, as destructive of the vines. Psalms 78:47. Yet (And) ye... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE DAY THAT THE FOUNDATION OF THE LORD’S HOUSE - Zechariah, in a passage corresponding to this, uses the same words Zechariah 8:9, “the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built,” not of the first foundation, but of the work as resumed i... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SHAKE - Haggai closes by resuming the words of a former prophecy to Zerubbabel and Joshua, which ended in the coming of Christ. Even thus it is plain, that the prophecy does not belong personally to Zerubbabel, but to him and his descendants, chiefly to Christ. There was in Zerubbabel’s time... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL MAKE THEE AS A SIGNET - God reverses to Zerubbabel the sentence on Jeconiah for his impiety. To Jeconiah He had said Jeremiah 22:24, “though he were the signet upon My right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life.” The signet was ver... [ Continue Reading ]