Haggai 1:2

Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD's house should be built. THUS SPEAKETH THE LORD OF HOSTS - Yahweh, Lord of the powers of heaven and earth, and therefore requiring implicit obedience. THIS PEOPLE SAY - This sluggish and selfish people. He does not say, My people, since they had neglected the service of God. THE TIME - The proper time for building the temple. Two out of the 70 predicted years of captivity (dating from the destruction of the temple, 588 BC, ) were yet unexpired: this they make their plea for delay (Henderson). The 70 years of captivity were completed long ago, in the first year of Cyrus, 536 BC (Jeremiah 25:11;...

They who think that seventy years had not passed until the reign of Darius, may from this passage be easily disproved: for if the seventy years were not accomplished, an excuse would have been ready at hand,—that they had deferred the work of building the Temple; but it was certain, that the time had then elapsed, and that it was owing to their indifference that the Temple was not erected, for all the materials were appropriated to private uses. While then they were thus taking care of themselves and consulting their own interest, the building of the Temple was neglected. That the Temple was not built till the reign of Darius, this happened, as we have said, from another cause, because the prefects of king Cyrus gave much annoyance to the Jews, and Cambyses was most hostile to them. But when liberty was restored to them, and Darius had so kindly permitted them to build the Temple, they h...

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...

Verse Haggai 1:2. _THE TIME IS NOT COME_] They thought that the _seventy_ _years_ spoken of by Jeremiah were not yet completed, and it would be useless to attempt to rebuild until that period had arrived. But Abp. _Usher_ has shown that from the commencement of the last siege of Jerusalem unto this time, precisely _sixty-nine_ years had been completed....

THUS SPEAKETH THE LORD OF HOSTS, SAYING, THIS PEOPLE SAY - Not Zerubbabel or Joshua, but “this people.” He says not, “My people,” but reproachfully “this people,” as, in acts, disowning Him, and so deserving to be disowned by Him. “The time is not come,” literally “It is not time to come, time for the house of the Lord to be built” . They might yet sit still; the time for them “to come” was not yet, for not yet was the “time for the house of the Lord to be built.” Why it was not time, they did not say. The government did not help them; the original grant by Cyrus Ezra 3:7 was exhausted; the Samaritans hindered them, because they would not own them, (amid their mishmash of worship, “worshiping,” our Lord tells them John 4:22, “they know not what”), as worshipers of the same God. It was a bold ex

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

THUS SPEAKETH THE LORD OF HOSTS,.... Of armies above and below; whom all ought to reverence, honour, and obey; who was able to support his people in building his house, and protect them from their enemies, which should have been an encouragement to them; and to punish them for their neglect of it, which might have deterred them from it. This preface is made, to show that what follow were not the words of the prophet, but of the Lord; and therefore to be the more regarded, and the truth of them not to be doubted of: SAYING, THIS PEOPLE SAY; repeating the words of the people of the Jews to Zerubbabel and Joshua, that they might observe them, and the wickedness and ingratitude in them. "This people", lately brought out of the captivity of Babylon, and loaded with various blessings and benefits; and not a few of them, but the generality of them, the body of them, expressed themselves after...

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