Haggai 1:11

And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands. AND I CALLED FOR. What the "heaven" and "earth," the second causes, were said to do (Haggai 1:10), being the visible instruments, Yahweh, in this verse, the invisible First Cause, declares to be His doing. He "calls for" famine, etc., as instruments of His wrath (2 Kings 8:1; Psalms 105:16). The contrast is striking between the prompt obedience of these material agencies and the slothful disobedience of living men, His people....

1-11 Observe the sin of the Jews, after their return from captivity in Babylon. Those employed for God may be driven from their work by a storm, yet they must go back to it. They did not say that they would not build a temple, but, Not yet. Thus men do not say they will never repent and reform, and be religious, but, Not yet. And so the great business we were sent into the world to do, is not done. There is a proneness in us to think wrongly of discouragements in our duty, as if they were a discharge from our duty, when they are only for the trial of our courage and faith. They neglected the building of God's house, that they might have more time and money for worldly affairs. That the punishment might answer to the sin, the poverty they thought to prevent by not building the temple, God brought upon them for not building it. Many good works have been intended, but not done, because men...

AND I CALLED FOR A DROUGHT UPON THE LAND - God called to the people and they would not hear. It is His ever-repeated complaint to them. “I called unto you, and ye would not hear.” He called to His inanimate creatures to punish them, and “they” obeyed. So Elisha tells the woman, whose son he had restored to life, 2 Kings 8:1. “The Lord hath called to the famine, and it shall also come to the land seven years.” AND UPON MEN, - in that the drought was oppressive to man. The prophet may also allude to the other meaning of the word, “waste,” “desolation.” They had left the house of the Lord “waste,” therefore God called for waste, desolation, upon them....

EXPOSITION HAGGAI 1:1 Part I. THE FIRST ADDRESS: EXHORTATION TO BUILD THE TEMPLE AND ITS RESULT. HAGGAI 1:1 § 1. _The people are reproved for their indifference with regard to the erection of the temple, and admonished that their present distress is a chastisement for this neglect._ HAGGAI 1:1 IN THE SECOND YEAR OF DARIUS THE KING. This is Darius Hystaspes, who reigned over Persia from B.C. 521 to B.C. 486. He is called in the inscr

AND I CALLED FOR A DROUGHT UPON THE LAND,.... Upon the whole land of Judea; as he withheld the dew and rain from falling on it to moisten it, refresh it, and make it fruitful; so he ordered a vehement heat to dry and parch it; and directed the rays of the sun to strike with great force upon it, and cause the fruits of it to wither; and which is done by a word of his; when he calls, every creature obeys. There is an elegant play on words, which shows the justness of such a proceeding, that it was according to the law of retaliation; they suffered the house of God to lie חרב, "waste", and therefore he calls for חרב, a "wasting" drought, to come upon their land: AND UPON THE MOUNTAINS; where herbage grew, and herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were fed; but now the grass through the drought was withered away, and so no pasturage for them, and in course must perish: AND UPON THE CORN, AND...

The subject is the building of the second temple. The people had been busily employed in building their own houses some of them had gone to great expense and much labour upon these houses, but they had not built the temple of God. The prophet Haggai was sent to incite them to holy labour. Haggai 1:1. _In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Thus people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house should be built._ A bad excuse is thought to be better than none. These people would not object to the building of the Lord's house, but they were willing to postpone so expensive a matter. There are always some per

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1:1-11 Haggai's First Address _ 1. The introduction (Habakkuk 1:1) _ 2. The reproof (Habakkuk 1:2) 3. Consider your ways (Habakkuk 1:7) Habakkuk 1:1. Darius Hystaspes had been king one year and had entered upon the second year, 520 B.C., when, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, the word of the Lord was given by Haggai. It was addressed to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, the son of josedech, the high-priest. Zerubbabel and Joshua were the prominent civic and religious leaders of that day. Zerubbabel was the son of Shealt

HAGGAI 1:2. Read _mg._ Haggai 1:3. is a superfluous editorial addition. HAGGAI 1:4. A cieled house was one lined with timber, ordinary houses being left as rough inside as outside. This house means the whole Temple area, as is evident from Haggai 1:14; Haggai 2:3. Haggai 1:5. Consider your ways: means take notice of your experiences. In Haggai 1:5 Haggai exhorts the people to

NEW WINE. Hebrew. _tirosh._ App-27. THAT WHICH. Some codices, with Aram, and Syriac, read "all which"....

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....