Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:haggai Chapter 1 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of haggai, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Haggai 1
New Revised Standard Version
1In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:
2Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD's house.
3Then the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying:
4Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
5Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
6You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.
7Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
8Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD.
9You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses.
10Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce.
11And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labors. A favorable response: The people get to work
12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of the prophet Haggai, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the LORD.
13Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD's message, saying, I am with you, says the LORD.
14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua 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 the LORD of hosts, their God,
15on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month. An oracle of encouragement: The new Temple will be more splendid than the old In the second year of King Darius,
1in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying:
2Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say,
3Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?
4Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts,
5according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear.
6For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land;
7and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts.
8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts.
9The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts. An oracle of encouragement: Already, the curse is lifting
10On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying:
11Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests for a ruling:
12If one carries consecrated meat in the fold of one's garment, and with the fold touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priests answered, "No."
13Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered, "Yes, it becomes unclean."
14Haggai then said, So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, says the LORD; and so with every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.
15But now, consider what will come to pass from this day on. Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the LORD's temple,
16how did you fare? When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty.
17I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD.
18Consider from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid, consider:
19Is there any seed left in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on I will bless you. An oracle of salvation: The ideal age is imminent
20The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twentyfourth day of the month:
21Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth,
22and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade.
23On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts. ZECHARIAH
1905ZECHARIAH Introduction The book of Zechariah is the longest and most obscure of the Minor Prophets. Formally, it divides into two parts. The first, chs 1-8, consists of a series of vision reports. Often referred to as "First Zechariah," it is closely tied to the preceding book of Haggai by the date formulas in 1.1; 1.7; and 7.1 (cf. Haggai 1.1; 2.1) and the references to Joshua, the high priest of Jerusalem, and Zerubbabel, its governor. The second section, chs 9-14, is a collection of sayings organized in two parts under the title "An Oracle" (9.1; 12.1). "Second Zechariah," as it is sometimes called, is similar in form to the subsequent book, Malachi, which itself begins with the same title (Mal 1.1). These oracles cite neither specific dates nor contemporary persons. Their concerns are for "that day," the Day of the Lord (e.g., 9.16; 12.3; 13.1; 14.1), and for unnamed persons such as a king who enters Jerusalem on a donkey (9.9) and a "shepherd" stricken by a divine sword (13.7). The prophecies in the first part date from 520-518 BCE. Zechariah, a contemporary of Haggai, prophesied in the early days of the restoration, when returning exiles joined with those who never left to rebuild Judahite society. There are no biographical details in the book itself, but Zechariah is mentioned, along with Haggai, in Ezra 5.1 and 6.14. He shared Haggai's zeal for a rebuilt Temple, a purified community, and the coming of an ideal age. But Zechariah differs from in the dialect of apocalyptic, with angelic interpreters and esoteric imagery. For his city, Zechariah had utopian expectations: The rebuilding of the Temple would inaugurate nothing short of the transformation of the world. For its leaders, Zechariah had messianic hope (4.14). Yet despite the apocalyptic style, Zech 1-8 also has a down- ZECHARIAH
1906to-earth focus on the rebuilding of the Temple, practical concerns such as fasting (7.1-14), and a given historical moment. The second part of the book is more difficult to date, and its historical background is elusive. The reference to "Greece" (9.13) could suggest a date after Alexander the Great's campaigns (after ca.
330BCE) but it is unwise to rely on a single datum. Though its oracles do not mention other-worldly interpreters, Zech 9-14 also contains an apocalyptic message. Conflicts in the restoration community are described against a cosmic backdrop (see the contrast between Judah and Jerusalem in 12.1-5). The ever present vulnerability of Judah to the parade of empires finds vivid expression: The nations attack Jerusalem but the Lord intervenes to defeat them and transform Jerusalem into a kind of Eden (14.1-11). Zechariah is best read from start to finish: chs 1-8 in conjunction with development of apocalyptic literature in the Hebrew Bible, Zechariah stands between Ezekiel (e.g., chs 38-39) and Daniel (chs 7-12).