Table of Contents
Haggai 1
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,
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.
3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
9 Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
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.
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.
13 Then spake Haggai the Lord's messenger in the Lord's message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.
14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,
15 In the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.
Notes
Cross Reference
Commentary
Rashi
Verse 1
<html><b>In the second year of King Darius</b> This was Darius king of Persia, who succeeded Ahasuerus. We find in <i>Midrash Leviticus Rabbah</i> (13:4) that he was Esther’s son. Now, in the days of Cyrus I, Zerubbabel and Joshua the Priest went up from Babylon to Jerusalem with the sanction of Cyrus, as it is said (Ezra 1:3): “Whoever is among you of all His people, etc.” The adversaries of Judah and Benjamin rose up and sent their letters to Cyrus to [have him] ordain that they [Judah and Benjamin] stop the construction of the Temple, which they had commenced; and he gave the order and stopped it. From that day they stopped, as is explained in Ezra (4:24): “Then the work of the house of God was stopped, etc.” It was stopped for the three years that Cyrus reigned, the fourteen years of Ahasuerus, and the first year of Darius his son. In the second year [of Darius] this prophecy was proclaimed to Haggai: to urge them [i.e., Judah and Benjamin] to resume the building, and that they should not fear, for the heathens would not stop them for the Holy One, blessed be He, would grant them success.</html>
Verse 2
<html><b>This people has said</b> Since their enemies stopped them the first time, they think that I will not fulfill My words that I said, (Dan. 9:2) “According to the completion of seventy years from the destruction of Jerusalem”; and that the time for the House to be rebuilt will never come. Say to them that now the time has come, but the first time was only a remembrance at the completion of the seventy years from the inception of the kingdom of Babylon. And so it was that at the end of seventy years they were remembered for going up by the sanction of Cyrus; but the [time for the] building of the House depended upon [counting from] the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place eighteen years later than [the inception of] the kingdom of Babylon, as the master said (<i>Meg.</i> 11b): “They were exiled in the eighteenth year; they were exiled in the nineteenth year.” Now, the eighteen years are complete.</html>
Verse 4
<html><b>Is it [an appropriate] time for you?</b> This is an interrogative expression; therefore the “heh” is vowelized with a “pattah.” <b>ceiled</b> covered with boards of cedar, as in (I Kings 6:9): “And he covered the house” and (ibid. 7:3) “And it was covered with cedar.” And so did <i>Jonathan</i> render: “Is such a way proper for you, that you sit in the houses that are covered with boards of cedar, and this Temple is destroyed?”</html>
Verse 5
<html><b>your ways</b> Your affairs, for you see that there is no blessing in the work of your hands, as he [Haggai] states: You have sown much and you bring in little. All this is because of the desolation of My house.</html>
Verse 6
<html><b>and you bring in little</b> because of the iniquity of the cessation of [the offerings of] the first fruits. <b>You eat without being satiated</b> because of the iniquity of the cessation of the meal-offerings. <b>You drink without getting your fill</b> for the taste of wine was taken away because the libations ceased. <b>You dress, and it has no warmth</b> because of the iniquity of the cessation of wearing the priestly garments. <b>And he who profits, profits into a bundle with holes</b> Any profit that you make becomes less and less, like one who puts his money into a cloth bundle with holes.</html>
Verse 8
<html><b>and I will be honored</b> The “heh” [whose numerical value is five] missing from the Masoretic text corresponds to the five items in the First Temple that were not in the Second Temple: 1) the Holy Ark, 2) the Urim and Tummim, 3) the fire that descended from heaven, 4) the Shechinah, and 5) the Holy Spirit, as is stated in Tractate <i>Yoma</i> (21b).</html>
Verse 9
<html><b>You looked for much</b> Until now, you expected to bring much from the field, but you brought little. <b>and I will blow into it</b> I will bring upon it a plague of decay and worms. <b>and I will blow</b> an expression like (Isa. 54:16) “Who blows on a charcoal fire.”</html>
Verse 10
<html><b>because of you the heavens have kept back</b> Because of your sins.</html>
Verse 13
<html><b>in [fulfilling] the Lord’s mission</b> In the messengership of the Omnipresent.</html>
Verse 14
<html><b>and they came and performed labor</b> They commenced cutting stones and sawing trees in the sixth month, on the twenty fourth of the month; and in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day, the word of the Lord came to Haggai.</html>