//. / . LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PRINCETON. N. J. Presented by "The Widow of &eoro"eDi/\c£c'in J % Division. JBS^^^" -v_y \ A COMMENTARY ON THE HOLY SCRIPTURES: CRITICAL, DOCTRINAL, AND HOMILETICAL WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MINISTERS AND STUDENT8 BT JOHN PETER* LANGE, D. D., ORDINARY PBOTXBSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OP BONN, or aowwunoK with a kumbkb or eminent eckopean divotm TRANSLATED, ENLARGED, AND EDITED PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D., PROFESSOR OP THEOLOGY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. NEW YORK, ia oomntCTiON with amebioax scholars or vabious bvanoelical DENOMINATION. VOt.miE XIV. OF THE OLD TESTAMENT: CONTAINING THE MINOR PROPHETS .NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1899 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/bookofhaggai1411mccu THE MINOR PROPHETS KXEGETICALLY, THEOLOGICALLY. AND HOMILETICALLY EXPOUNDED PATTL KLEINERT, OTTO SCHMOLLER, GEORGE R. BLISS, TALBOT W. CHAMBERS, CHARLES ELLICTT, JOHN FORSYTH, J. FREDERICK Mc CURDY, AND JOSEPH PACKARD. EDITED BY PHILIP SOHAFF, D. D. NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1899 Altered according to Act of Congress, in the vear 1874, Or Scribner, Armstrong, and Compant, n the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, 205-213 East 12th St., NEW YORK. PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR The volume on the Minor Prophets is partly in advance of the German original, which has not yet reached the three post-exilian Prophets. The commentaries on the nine earlier Prophets by Professors Kleinert and Schmoller appeared in separate number! some time ago * ; but for Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, Dr. Lange has not, to this date, been able to secure a suitable co-laborer. 2 With his cordial approval I deem it better to complete the volume by original commentaries than indefinitely to postpone the publication. They were prepared by sound and able scholars, in conformity with the plan of the whole work. The volume accordingly contains the following parts, each one being paged separately : — 1. A General Introduction to the Prophets, especially the Minor Prophets, by Rev. Charles Elliott, D. D., Professor of Biblical Exegesis in Chicago, Illinois. The general introductions of Kleinert and Schmoller are too brief and incomplete for our purpose, and therefore I requested Dr. Elliott to prepare an independent essay on the subject. 2. Hosea. By Rev. Dr. Otto Schmoller. Translated from the German and en- larged by James Frederick Mc Curdy, M. A., of Princeton, N. J. 3. Joel. By Otto Schmoller. Translated and enlarged by Rev. John Forsyth, D. D., LL. D., Chaplain and Professor of Ethics and Law in the United States Military Academy, West Point, N. Y. 4. Amos. By Otto Schmoller. Translated and enlarged by Rev. Talbot W Chambers, D. D., Pastor of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, New York. 5. Obadiah. By Rev. Paul Kleinert, Professor of Old Testament Theology in the University of Berlin. Translated and enlarged by Rev. George R. Bliss, D. D., Professor in the University of Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. 6. Jonah. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of the University of Berlin. Translated and en- larged by Rev. Charles Elliott, Professor of Biblical Exegesis in Chicago. 8 7. Micah. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of Berlin, and Prof. George R. Bliss, of Lewie* burg. 8. Nahum. By Prof. Paul Kleinert, of Berlin, and Prof. Charles Elliott, of Chicago. 9. Habakkuk. By Professors Kleinert and Elliott. 1 Obadjah, Jonah, Mieha, Nahum, Habakuk, Zephanja/i. Wissenshqftlich undfilr den Oebraueh der Kirehe ausgelegt txm PAUL Kleinebt, Pfarrer zu St. Gertraud und a. Professor an der Universitdt zu Berlin. Bielefeld u. Leipzig, 1868. — Die Propheten Hosea, Joel und Amos. Theologiaeh-homiletisch bearbeitet von Ono Sohmollsb, Lieent. der Theologie, Diaconus m Vrack. Bielef. und Leipzig, 1872. a The commentary of Rev. W. Prbssbl on these three Propheta (Die naehtxilisehen Propheten, Gotha, 1870) w»J originally prepared for Lange's Bible-work, but was rejected by Dr. Lange mainly on account of Pressel's views on :h* genuineness and integrity of Zechariah. It was, however, independently published, and was made use of, like other commentaries, by the authors of the respective sections in this volume. 8 Dr. Elliott desires to render his acknowledgments to the Rev. Reuben Dederick, of Chicago, and the Rev. Jacob Lotke, of Faribault, Minnesota, for valuable assistance in translating some difficult passages in Kleinerfl Commentanea *n Jonah, Nahum, and Habakkuk. PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR. 10. Zephaniah. By Professors Kleinert and Elliott. 11. Haggai. By James Frederick McCurdy, M. A., Princeton, N. J. 12. Zechariah By Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, D. D., New York. (See special preface.) 18. Malachi. By Rev. Joseph Packard, D. D., Professor of Biblical Literature in the Theological Seminary at Alexandria, Virginia. The contributors to this volume were directed carefully to consult the entire ancient and modern literature on the Minor Prophets and to enrich it with the latest results of German and Anglo-American scholarship. The remaining parts of the Old Testament are all under way, and will be published ai fast as the nature of the work will permit. PHILIP SCHAFF. Ubtoh THaoLoarou Sbmwaii, Nnr You. .ir.-Mtry, 1874. THE BOOK OF HAGGAI. EXPOUNDED • JAMES FREDERICK M°CURDY BUniUOTOa IN ORIENTAL LANGCAOKS, THEOLOGICAL 9KMINARY, PRINCWOR, W. 2 NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. f&atered according »« Act of Congress, in the year 1374, b , Sckibner, Armstrong, and Company. x the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington THE PROPHECIES OF HAGGAI. INTRODUCTION. § 1. Person of the Prophet. The name Haggai C*an, LXX., 'Ayyaios, Vulg., Aggozus) is, in the Old Testament, borne only by our Prophet. It is usually held to mean Festive, from yn, a feast, with the adjectival suffix *7" for "»— (Green, Heb. Gram., § 194 b; Ewald, 1 § 164 c). Other explanju tions are : My Feast ; Feast of Jehovah ; but these are less tenable. 2 All that we certainly know of the personal history of Haggai is gathered from a com- parison of chaps, i. 1 ; ii. 1, 10, 20 of his Prophecy, with Ezra v. 1 ; vi. 14. These notice* do not throw any light upon his private life or circumstances, but merely indicate the occa- sions of his official action. They inform us that he began his prophetic career in the second year of Darius Hystaspes (b. c. 520), and that his discourses bore chiefly upon the erection of the Second Temple. His recorded public addresses cover a period of about four months, during the latter half of which he enjoyed the cooperation of Zechariah (comp. Zech. i. 1). We do not even know whether he was a native of Judasa or of Babylon, whether he was orn before or during the Exile. Ewald has inferred from chap. ii. 3 that he had beheld -e First Temple ; but this is not necessarily implied in the passage. If he was born before ^e Captivity he must have been at least nearly seventy years old when he entered upon his linistry. 8 We have, in the patristic age, statements by Pseudo-Dorotheus and Pseudo-Epiphanius each of whom composed a history of the lives of the prophets), to the effect that Haggai eturned to Jerusalem along with the other exiles, being then still a young man ; that he urvived the completion of the Temple (b. c. 516), and was interred with priestly honors close to the burial-place of the Priests. We know of nothing to disprove these assertions ; but neither have we any evidence in their favor, and so many improbable accounts of the Prophets were in circulation both among the later Jews and the early Christians, that all unsupported extra-biblical statements concerning them must be regarded with suspicion. A notion had even gained currency in the time of Jerome (who thought it necessary to dis- prove it) that Haggai, as well as Malachi and John the Baptist, were angels and not men. This opinion was based upon a misunderstanding of Hag. i. 13 ; Mai. iii. 1 ; Mark i. 2. § 2. Occasion and Aim of the Prophecy. Haggai was the earliest of the Prophets of the Restoration, preceding Zechariah by about two months. At the time of his appearance, the offices of a divine messenger were greatly needed among the Jews. In order to understand their situation as clearly as possible, it will be necessary to recur to the events which marked their history immediately after their return from the Exile. During this review we shall have to bear in mind that their conduct towards God, their neglect or fulfillment of their covenant duties towards Him, mainly deter- 1 Grammatical references to this author in the present Commentary are to his AusfUrliches Lekrbuch der Hebraischen Sprache, 8th ed., 1870. His exegetical opinions are found in his Propketen des alten Bundes, ii., pp. 616-522 2 Compare the similar names in Qen. xlvi. 16 ; Numb. xxvi. 15. 8 See the exegesis of chap. ii. 3- Keil, in animadverting upon Ewald's supposition, asserts that Haggai must hay* Deen at that time eighty years old. But this he himself disproves by his correct observations upon the passage itself Ln am Introduc'ion to the Old Testament (i., p. 420, Engl, translation), he had favored the conjecture of Ewald. I HAGGAI. mined their temporal and spiritual condition, as well as the matter and tone of the prophetic communications. The first religious acts of the little colony promised favorably enough. After reinstituting the observance of the legal festivals in the seventh month (the month of feasts) of the first year of their return, which was also the first of the sole reign of Cyrus, they proceeded to hire workmen and purchase building material, and laid the foundation of the Second Temple in the second month of the second year, B. c. 535. But even on this joyful occasion there were indications of a feeling of despondency among those who had beheld the First Temple in its superior outward beauty (Ezra iii. 12, 13), a feeling which seems to have been soon communicated to the rest of the people, and to have contributed to that neglect of the Tern pie which the Prophet afterwards rebuked. The same symptom at all events reappeared even after the work of building had been more energetically resumed, for it was this that called forth his third address (chap. ii. 1-9). This point deserves attention here, for if we compare our Prophet's discourses with the Book of Ezra, we shall find that the delay in the great work was due no less to the unfaithfulness and faint-heartedness of the people than to the machi- nations of their enemies. It was not long before the latter cause began to operate. The Samaritans, the heathen nations (Ezra iv. 1, 9, 10), who had been planted in the deserted tities of the ten tribes by Esarhaddon, offered, immediately after the founding of the Temple, to form an alliance with them, and to assist them in their labors, on the plea that both commu- nities worshipped the same God. This proposal having been rejected, they next employed counsellors against the Jews at the Persian court. Their intrigues, after long perseverance, seemed to be at last quite successful, when, in reply to a petition addressed by them to Pseudo-Smerdis (b. c. 522, the Artaxerxes of Ezra iv. 7), they were assured that the build- ing of Jerusalem must be discontinued. The decree of this usurper was immediately carried into effect, and whatever efforts the Jews might be inclined to make in the way of complet- ing the Temple were rendered impossible of execution during the remainder of his reign, which lasted less than a year. But on the accession of Darius Hystaspes (b. c. 521), who was soon found to be favorable to his Judaean subjects., the expostulations and exhortations of Haggai and Zechariah, as prophets of Jehovah, stirred them up to resume and finish the work. In studying the disposition of the people during the interval between the founding of the Temple and their final and successful effort to complete it, and so seeking the justification of the Prophet's ministry, we can gather enough from the Biblical record to show us that they were in need of just such a method of treatment as that which he adopted towards them in his addresses. That the slow progress or the lengthened intermissions in the work were not entirely owing to the opposition of the Samaritans, is abundantly manifest. (1.) The rescript of Pseudo-Smerdis against them was not issued until thirteen years had elapsed after the foundations were laid. The mere intrigues of their enemies were sufficient to deter them from serious, persevering effort. This shows that they were by no means zealous in the cause of God and religion. (2.) The reign of that usurper lasted only a few months, and it was not until the second year of his successor, and until they were incited by stern rebuke and expostulation, that they returned to their duty, although it must have occurred to them that the policy of the former monarch would naturally be opposed by the latter. (3.) We learn from the Prophecy itself, that, during the period we are considering, many of them had been employing their superfluous means to beautify their own dwellings, while the House of God was lying desolate, thus manifesting a selfish disregard of his superior claims. (4.) The scantiness of their harvests, and the want of success that had attended their labors generally, are adduced by the Prophet as an evidence of God's displeasure, since under the theocracy, national and domestic prosperity or distress was determined by obedience or neglect of the Divine King. These calamities therefore proved them guilty of ignoring his demands, the most imperative of which at that time was the restoration of his Dwelling-place. Such were the external circumstances which called forth the Prophet's discourses. They indicate sufficiently the immediate object of his ministry. The bearing of his prophecies upon the interests of his people and of the Church of God, can be learnt to any satisfactory extent only from their exposition. At present a few remarks, in a most general way, will be all that it will be necessary to offer. While it is characteristic of all the Prophets of the Restoration that they are much occu pied with the Temple in its relations to God's kingdom, it is the distinction of Haggai tha* all his discourses, even the last (chap. ii. 20-23), relate more or less directly to this subject It is not difficult to discover the reason of this. In the first place, the Temple wa« the ven INTRODUCTION oondition of the national existence. If the returned exiles were to be organized and to continue as a distinct people, the Temple must be restored and sacredly guarded. Other nations might exist without such a palladium ; they could not. In the second place, those who were united by this common institution composed the Church of God, his covenint people. The Temple was his earthly dwelling, where in united worship they were accus- tomed to seek his covenanted favor and the bestowal of common blessings, the place where his Presence was specially displayed. It was therefore necessary that the earliest prophetic addresses to the little community should awaken in them a sense of the relation in which they stood to God as his subjects and chosen people, and of the obligation thereby entailed upon them to restore his neglected and desolate House. Then would He return to dwell with them (chap. i. 14). Then would they enjoy the abiding presence of his Spirit (ii. 5). Then, too, would He pour forth upon them perpetual blessings (ii. 19) instead of the merited chastisements of the past. Then would they, as the objects of his peculiar care, be preserved among the commotions which should shatter the surrounding nations (ii. 22, 23). Thus in this aspect of the Prophet's ministry its grand purpose was to subserve the progress of God's kingdom by evoking and perpetuating among his people a spirit of ready obedience and love to his ordinances. This was the part he bore in laying the foundations of the Church of the Second Temple. But the Second Temple was viewed by the Prophet distinctively in another aspect. While inferior to the first in outward splendor it was to be the seat of a more spiritual wor- ship, which would constitute it a more fitting representative of the Church of Christ. Thia relation Haggai seems to have regarded in that one of his discourses which was at once the most cheering to his cotemporaries and the most instructive to future generations (chap. ii. 1-9). There he even assumes the identity of the Second Temple and the Church of Mes- sianic times, and describes the former as sharing in the glories of the latter. He announces that the time is not far off when the privileges of Jehovah's worship shall be extended over all the earth, and that the treasures of all nations will then be brought to adorn this Tem- ple and to exalt its glory above the departed splendor of the former House, while peace and prosperity shall reign among the unnumbered worshippers. The divine purpose in this discourse was, on the one hand, to revive the drooping spirits of those who were engaged upon the Temple, by revealing to them the transcendent glory which should ultimately crown their work ; and, on the other, to afford to the feeble and despised people of God, but lately emerged from their long captivity, a bright glimpse of the future which was in store for them, when they should embrace all the kingdoms of the earth. 1 § 3. The Book of the Prophet in Matter and Form. The Book of the Prophet Haggai consists of five addresses delivered to the Jewish people, within a period of about four months, in the second year of Darius Hystaspes, King of Per- sia. The first discourse (chap. i. 1-11) is one of reproof, expostulation, and warning, being designed to arouse the people from their religious apathy, and, in especial, from their indiffer- ence to the condition of the Temple, which was then lying desolate. The second discourse (contained in the section chap. i. 12-15), after a relation of the beneficial results of the first, holds out to them, in their returning obedience, the promise of God's returning favor and of his aid in their work. 2 The third discourse (chap. ii. 1-9), evoked by the despon- 1 If this were the proper place for the discussion, it might he interesting to trace the relations subsisting between the several discourses of the Prophets of the Restoration, which bear upon the Temple, e. g. , how Haggai assumes the identity of the Second Temple and the Church of Christ, while Zechariah (vi. 12, 13) seems to contradict him by assert- ing that the Messiah would Himself build the Temple of Jehovah, and Malachi resolves into full harmony these seeming discords of the Prophetic lyre by predicting that Jehovah would come to his Temple, and purify the sons of Levi (iii 1-3). The subject is worthy of fuller consideration. 2 Nearly all the Commentators regard chap. i. as comprising but one discourse, thus making the whole prophecy to lonsist of four. The following considerations will show that the passage chap. i. 12-15 should form a separate divigion, u containing a distinct address. (1.) Ver. 13 seems to indicate that a new message was delivered by Jehovah to Haggai (2 ) As far as ver. 11 the words of the Prophet are objurgatory, thus giving a well-defined character to the discourse. His words in ver. 13 express approval and convey encouragement, they must therefore form the subject of a distinct mes. «ge. The reason of the contrast is obvious. A complete change (described in ver. 12) had been effected in the dispose don of the people. Before they had been apathetic and careless. But now the rebukes and denunciations of the Prophet iud excited in them that true fear of God whose earliest fruit is repentance (comp. ver. 14). Hence he was commissioned to assure them of God's renewed favor. The brevity of the message as recorded, is accounted for on the assumption (probable upon all grounds) that Haggai, in accordance with the general usage of the Prophets, has given us a mere out line of his address. It is generally held that vers. 12-15 are intended merely to set forth the effects of the first message But it is to be remembered that the aim of the Prophet was not to write history, and that when he appears to be n« -»tinp , hf is simply showing the occasions of his discourses, whose delivery was the sole object of his mission r» liAGGAI. dency that had begun to affect some of the people, on account of the outward inferior^ of the present temple, predicts for it a glory far transcending that of its predecessor, sine* the treasures of all nations were yet to adorn the Church of the Messiah, of which it was the representative. The fourth discourse (chap. ii. 10-19), teaches them, from the princi pies of the Ceremonial Law, that no amount of outward religious observance can commu nicate holiness, or secure acceptance with God and the restoration of his favor, the with drawal of which had been so manifest in their late public and private distress. The fift\ discourse assures the struggling community of their preservation in the midst of commo- tions which should destroy other nations, promising to its faithful rulers, represented by Zerubbabel, the special protection of their Covenant God. These outlines of his addresses the Prophet has arranged in regular chronological order carefully indicating the dates of their respective delivery. They are presented in a style, which, though lacking the poetical qualities of many of the earlier prophecies, is yet marked in various passages by great vivacity and impressiveness, to which, among other characteristics, the frequent use of interrogation (e. g., in chaps, i. 4, 9 ; ii. 3, 12, 13, 19) largely contrib- utes. A striking peculiarity of the Prophet's style has been remarked in his habit of " utter- ing the main thought with concise and nervous brevity, after a long and verbose introduc- tion " (comp. chaps, i. 2 ; i. 12 ; ii. 5; ii. 19). In addition to these more obvious character- istics, we can discern both rhetorical and grammatical peculiarities natural to the declining period of the Hebrew language and literature. Of the former class is, for example, the fre- quent recurrence of favorite phrases : of the latter are such anomalous constructions as are found in chaps, i. 4, 6, 8, 9 ; ii. 3, 15, 16, 18, to the critical discussion of which the reader is referred for fuller explanation. § 4. Special Works upon Haggai or upon the Prophets of the Restoration as a whole. J. P. Clinton, Comm. upon Haggai, London, 1560 ; J. Pilkington, An Exposition upon the Prophet Aggeus, London, 1560 ; J. Mercerus (or Mercier), Scholia et Versio ad Prophetiam Haggozi, Paris, 1581 ; J. J. Grynaeus, Comm. in Haggazum, Geneva, 1581 (translated into En- glish by Chr. Featherstone, London, 1586) ; Fr. Baldwin, Comm. in Hagg., Zach., et Mai., Wittenberg, 1610 ; B. Willius, Prophet a: Hagg., Zach., Malach., Commentario Illustrati, Bre- men, 1638; Aug. Varenius, Trifolium Propheticum. seu Tres Posteriores Prophetaz, scil. Hagg. Zach., et Mai., Explicati, Rostock, 1662, and Exercitatiunes Duos in Proph. Hagg., Rostock, 1648; Andr. Reinbeck, Exercitaliones in Proph. Hagg., Brunswick, 1692; Dan. Pfeffinger, Notoz in Proph. Hagg., Strassburg, 1703; Francis Woken, Annotationes Exegeticai in Proph. Hagg., Leipzig, 1719 ; J. G. Scheibel, Observationes Critical et Exegeticos ad Vaticinia Haggai cum Prologomenis, Wratislaw, 1822 ; T. V. Moore, The Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, a New Translation, with Notes, New York, 1856 ; Aug. Kbhler, Die Weissagungen Haggai' s erkldrt, Erlangen, 1860. W. Pressel, Commentar zu den Schriften der Propheten Haggai, Sacharja und Malachi, Gotha, 1870. For Commentaries upon the Minor Prophets which include Haggai, see the General Intro- duction to this volume. The Messianic passage in Haggai (chap. ii. 6-9) is discussed by the following writers : Wm. Harris, Discourses on the Principal Representations of the Messiah in the Old Testament, Lond., 1724 ; Bp. Chandler, Defence of Christianity, from the Prophecies of the Old Test., Lond., 1725, pp. 71-84; J. H. Verschuir, In Hagg. ii. 6-9, Franecker, 1760, reprinted in his Dissertationes Philol.-exeget., 1773; Deyling, Observationes Sacros, Part iii. §18 : Gloria Tem- vli Poster ton's ; Hengstenberg, Christology, iii., pp. 265-295 (2ded. Engl. Transl.) ; Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfullung, vol. i., pp. 330 ff. ; Tholuck, Die Propheten und ihre T#u«sa« gungen, p. 156 ; J. P. Smith, Scripture Testimony to the Messiah (5th ed.), i., pp 28S ff. THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET HAGGAI. FIRST ADDRESS. Rebuke and Expostulation of the People for their Neglect of the Temple. Chapter I. 1-11. 1 In the second year of Darius 1 the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, there was a word of Jehovah, by the hand of Haggai the Prophet, to Zerubbabel,' 2 son of Shealtiel, governor 3 of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Josadak, 2 the High Priest, saying : Thus speaketh Jehovah of Hosts, saying : This people 3 say, It is not the time to come, 4 the time for the House of Jehovah to be built. And 4 a word of Jehovah was by the hand of Haggai the Prophet, saying : Is it the time for you yourselves 5 to dwell in wainscoted 6 houses, and this House lying waste ? 5, 6 But come ! saith Jehovah of Hosts, set your heart upon your ways. Ye have been sowing much and bringing in little ; eating, and it was not to satisfaction ; drinking, and it was not to fullness ; 7 clothing yourselves, and it was not to any one's being warm ; 8 and he who has been earning wages has been earning them into 7, 8 a torn purse. 9 Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, Set your heart upon your ways. Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the House, and I will take pleasure in 9 it, and will be honored, 10 saith Jehovah. Ye have kept looking for much, 11 and lo (it came) to little ! 12 and ye brought it home and I blew upon it. Because of what ? ia saith Jehovah. Because of my House which is desolate, while ye are running each 10 to his own house. Therefore above you have the heavens restrained themselves 11 from dew, and the earth has restrained her increase. And I invoked desolation upon the earth and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new- made wine, and upon the oil, and upon all that the soil produces, and upon man and upon beast, and upon all the labor of (men's) hands. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 Ver. 1. — K7YHT 1 ?. Some MSS. of Hagg., Zech., Dan., and Ezra read tCVH^T (Doryavesh), and others, VT : IT : •*T ! T ttJVT 7 ?. The correctness of the common reading is established by the forms Daryavush, and Darayavush, found in the Cuneiform Inscriptions. The name is usually held to be derived from the Zendic dar, to preserve, Sanskrit d/iar, the normal and root form of the verb dhri. The explanation of Herodotus (vi. 98), epfei7|s> coercitor, conservator, is therefore probably correct. 2 Ver. 1. — b^TT ia a name derived from Vpf and ^33 (Dispersed to Babylon), or from V^Ht. and , 33 (Begotteu in Babyion).' ' As Zerubbabel was probably born during tbe Exile, it is impossible to determine which is the correct explanation. Either etymology would of course account for the doubling of the first Beth. Ayin is dropped in the name bSfiEti?, from 3^Qtt7 and *TS. 3 Ver. 1. — nnG. The derivation of this word cannot be said to be yet setUed- The commonly received etymology (suggested by Benfey ) from the Sanskrit paksha, a companion (of the king), from which the modern term pasha is alto supposed to be derived, is disputed by Spiegel, chiefly on the ground that the word is not found in the Eranian lan- guages. He proposes to derive from the form pavan, from pa, to defend, which occurs in Zend and Sanskrit at the end ol oompounds (e. g., khsatrapavan, satrap, a defender of the kingdom), and in the Avesta as a separate word in the oo»- *»oted form pavan. He then conjectures a dialectic variation, pagvan, to account more naturally for our word. 4 Ver. 2.— S3VI1? b^b. The only plausible defense for reading S3, and rendering: the time has not come, M ill the ancient translators have done, as well as most of the English and early Continental expositors, is that according a the received reading the infinitive would be written defectively. This, however, is quite common (comp. Ex. ii. 18 ; Lev. xiv. 48 ; Num. xxxii. 9 ; 1 Kings xiv. 28 ; Is. xx. 1). Moore and Henderson retain the inf. and yet give the abort translation This can be assumed as correct only on the supposition that the inf. is used absolutely as equivalent to t 8 HAGGAI. Suite Terb. The position, however, that such a construction can be adopted when no finite verb precedes in the sen tence, is very precarious, really resting only upon Ezek. i. 14 (comp. Green, Heb. Gr., § 268, 1 a, and Ewald, § 280 o) But there is not the least necessity of resorting to it ; for the translation here adopted, and held by most of the recent German expositors, is quite natural and agreeable to the context. For the construction of the last clause of the verse, Me Greeu, § 267 b ; Ewald, § 237 c. 4 Ver. 4. — D£1S. Ou this emphatic repetition of the pers. pronoun, see Ewald, § 105 /., and comp. Jer. ii. 31. * Ver. 4. — C > j-lDp. This is one of the rare cases in which an adjective qualifying a definite substantive is withouf iae article. 7 Ver. 6. — The absol. inf. being properly a verbal noun, S2H, 71DS, etc., depend upon CJ-lp^T, and are deter- mined in sense by it; see Green, § 268, 1. The literal translation therefore is: Ye have sown much, and {theie wag] • bringing in of little, etc. 8 Ver. 6. — The impersonal force of the absol. inf. above suggested by the employment in the last clause but one ol *t^ instead of DD7, which would be naturally expected ; literally : there was aclothing (of one's self), and it was not fei • warming to him. 9 Ver. 6. — In the last clause we have a pregnant construction : earns wages (and puts them) into a purse with holes. 10 Ver. 8. — The keri is mZ33S1, which is also found in some MSS in Kennicott. The He paragogic in the " vol- untative " future occurs regularly in sentences denoting a consequence (Ewald, 8 347 a.). But it is sometimes absent (comp. Zech. i. 3 with Mai. iii. 7). Its omission in rTJSnSI decides nothing, since it is appended but very rarely to H 7 verbs (Green, § 172, 3 ; Ewald, § 228 c). The letter r! representing the number five, its omission here has been re. garded by later Talmudists as betokening that the Second Temple was deprived of the five following things : (1) The Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat and the Cherubim ; (2) The Sacred Fire ; (3) The Shekinah ; (4) The Holy Spirit ; (5) The Urim and Thummim. 11 Ver. 9. — !"73Q . The inf. abs. occurs here without any finite verb preceding, unlike the construction in ver. 6. Set the grammatical remarks upon that verse. It is therefore strictly a verbal noun : (there was) a looking for much, etc Such a mode of expression often indicates a certain degree of emotion, " after the utterance of which the ordinary man- ner of speaking is easily resumed " (Ewald, § 328 b). Accordingly a finite verb, DnS3H, is found in the next clause 13 Ver. 9. — Before t217J3 V some such verb as i~Pn is to be understood: (it came) to little. t : • TT 18 Ver. 9. — HP ]V^» Ta * s ^ one of tne numerous cases cited by Ewald (§ 1826), in which HP occurs for nCj without any assignable cause. Kohler suggests that the analogy of HS3, 7"tp3, 7112 IV might possibly tzplain the change as being occasioned by a preceding preposition The laws of Hebrew vocalization are, however, de- termined by the form and not by the meaning of words, and the existence of such anomalies as V*lp 7112 (1 Sam. iv. 1*)) t£5872 T172 (2 Kings ii. 7), would seem to show that further investigation would be hopeless. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. In the second year of Darius the King, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month. The dates affixed to the prophecies generaUy contemplate the perpetuation of the sev- eral books and the requirements of readers in all succeeding time. Haggai indicates with special care the precise date of the delivery of each of his messages. In accordance with the practice neces- sarily adopted by the Old Testament writers after the people of God were subjected by heathen pow- ers, the year of his prophecies is reckoned from the accession of the king to whom the Jews were then subject. The Darius here mentioned is Da- rius Hystaspes, who ascended the throne of Persia b. c. 521, and whose treatment of his Jewish sub- jects is recorded in Ezra iv. 24-vi. 22. That it could not have been Darius Nothus (b. C. 423), as J. J. Scaliger and a few others have maintained, appears plainly from ch. ii. 3, where our Prophet, according to the only natural interpretation of the verse, addresses those who had beheld the First Temple, which was destroyed b. c. 588. The month is named according to the sacred order in the Jewish year (comp. Zech. i. 7 ; vii. 1 ; viii. 19). The sixth month is Elul, answering nearly to our September, or, more strictly, extending from the lixth to the seventh new moon of the year. The 6rst daj of the month was specially suitable for che delivery of the Prophet's message, as being the feast-day of the New Moon, when he would he more likely to attract attention (Hengstenberg). There was a word of the Lord by the hand of Haggai the Prophet. The " word of the Lord," as always in the Prophets, indicates a freedom from all human admixture ; while the expression, "fl2 s intimates that the Prophet himself was mere- ly a medium of communication, the word simply passing through his hands. On the name and per- son of the Prophet see Introd. § 1 . To Zerub- babel, son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Josadak, the High Priest. Zerubbabel is called in Ezra i. 8 ; v. 14 by his Per sian name Sheshbazzar (of uncertain origin). Ir 1 Chron. iii. 17, Shealtiel appears as a son of Assu and grandson of Jeconiah (Jehoiachin). Accord ing to 1 Chron. iii. 19, Zerubbabel was a son of Pedaiah, a brother of Shealtiel. According to Luke iii. 27, Shealtiel was a son of Neri, a de- scendant of David through his son Nathan. The best method of harmonizing these statements is that adopted by Koehler and Keil. The latter says : " These three divergent accounts may be brought into agreement by means of the following combi- nations, if we keep in mind the prophecy of Jere- miah (xxii. 30), that Jeconiah would be childless and not be blessed with seeing one of his seed sit- ting upon the throne of David and ruling over Judah. This prophecy was fulfilled according to Luke's genealogical table, inasmuch as Shealtiel'i father there is not Assir or Jeconiah, a descendant of David in the line of Solomon, but Neri, a d» scendant of David's son Nathan. It follows fher» CHAPTER I. 1-11. fore that neither of the sons of Jeconiah mentioned in 1 Chron. iii. 17, 18 (Zedekiah and Assir), had a son, but that the latter had only a daughter, who married a man of the family of her father's tribe, according to the law of heiresses (Num. xxvii. 8 ; xxxvi. 8, 9), namely, Neri, who belonged to the tribe of Judah and " the family of David. From this marriage sprang Shealtiel, Malkiram, Peda- iah, and others. The eldest of these took posses- sion of the property of his maternal grandfather, and was regarded legally as his son. Hence he is described in 1 Chron. iii. 17 as the son of Assir the son of Jeconiah, whereas in Luke he is regarded, according to his lineal descent, as the son of Neri. But Shealtiel also appears to have died without posterity, and to have left only a widow, which ne- cessitated a Levirate marriage on the part of one of the brothers ( Deut. xxv. 5,10; Matt. xxii. 24, 28). Shealtiel's second brother Pedaiah appears to have performed this duty, to have begotten Zerubbabel and Shimei by this sister-in-law (1 Chron. iii. 19), the former of whom, Zerubbabel, was entered in the family register of the deceased uncle Sheal- tiel, passing as his (legal) son and heir, and con- tinuing his family." <""75 ("governor") is a general term for a civil and military ruler of a di- vision of a kingdom, applied at first to those of the Persian monarchy, and extended to those of others in writings of the later period (1 Kings x- 15). It was applied both to satraps, as Tatnai (Ezra v. 3), and to inferior governors, as Zerub- babel. Joshua is the same person so frequently mentioned in the Book of Zechariah, upon whom the high distinction was conferred of representing the Messiah as the future Prince and Priest of Is- rael, in the symbolical transaction recorded in Zech. iii. It is in accordance with this typical function that Joshua is addressed here along with Zerub- babel, not merely as the highest representative of the sacred priestly office, but also, to a certain ex- tent, as ruling the people jointly with the civil gov- ernor. Such authority was "gradually more and more assumed by the High Priests after the disso- lution of the kingdom until the tendency culminat- ed in the Maccabsean princes, who formally united the two functions in one person. It was, there- fore, as the leaders of the people civil and ecclesi- astical, that Zerubbabel and Joshua were appealed to. " Upon them the responsibility is laid if the work enjoined by Jehovah is not accomplished " (Koehler). Ver. 2. Thus speaketh Jehovah of Hosts. This venerable formula is employed uniformly by our Prophet to introduce his messages. This peo- ple say. There is no ground for assuming, as many have done, that the word this is here used in a contemptuous manner, like olrot and iste. There is, however, a significance in the choice of the word. The Jews are not called " Israel " or " My peo- ple," but by an attributive which denotes indiffer- ence, and thus indicates the divine displeasure against them. It is not the time to come. That this is the correct translation, is proved in the grammatical note upon this verse. The second clause : time for the House of Jehovah to be built, is both explanatory of the first and parallel K> it throughout in thought and construction. ' Coming " means preparing to build the Temple, ts the separate stages of preparation and erection are distinguished also in ver. 14. So most of the recent German expositors, after Osiander, Junius, Tremellius, and Cocceius. The people had prob- •bly been urging as an excuse for their inactivity that their relations with Persia were not favorabU to a resumption of work upon the Temple. Bui this was a mere pretext ; for they had made no effort to discover whether the new and legitimate king Darius Hystaspes would not regard them with favor. Their inaction was not the compul- sory and painful restraint of zealous patriots and ardent worshippers, but the easy and selfish indif ference of an ungrateful and unfaithful people. See a fuller estimate of their disposition at thij time in the Introduction, § 2. Vers. 3, 4. And a word of Jehovah .... And this House lying desolate. The disingenuous- ness of their plea is self-evident, and is therefore simply assumed in the following discourse, the de- sign of which is to awaken in them a sense of their ingratitude to God. It is represented to them most impressively, with an allusion to the very language of their pretext, that while they held their own wants and even their luxuries to be mat- ters of pressing moment, they thought any time suitable to attend to the claims of their God; that while their own homes had been regained, there was yet no habitation for the God of Israel ; that while their wealthy members were using their superfluous means to adorn and beautify their dwellings, God's dwelling-place still lay desolate t appealing in vain to their piety and patriotism, which had been overborne by selfishness and su- pineness. The allusion, moreover, could not fail to expose the insincerity of their excuses. Houses wainscoted with cedar were the residence of kings ( 1 Kings vii. 7 ; Jer. xxii. 14), and if some of them had now the command of such resources as enabled them to live in princely splendor, they might sure- ly have reserved a portion for the requirements of the Temple, when the work of building it should be resumed, — if that work had been giving them the least concern. The personal pronoun is re- peated — you yourselves — for the sake of em- phasis, in order to make more prominent the an- tithesis between them and Jehovah. See Grammat- ical note. Ver. 5. Set your heart upon your ways. This expression, so frequent in our Prophet (i. 7 ; ii. 15, 18), is equivalent to : consider your ways. As the next verse shows, the people were bidden to contemplate the results of their late couraj. In these, as displaying the operation of the princi- ples of God's moral and theocratical government, they might discern evidences of a disregard of nig plainly revealed will. They were to infer the na- ture of their conduct from its results. Ver. 6. Ye have been sowing much — into r torn^mrse. On the peculiar constructions in thw verse see the grammatical note. The consequences of the people's " ways " are now specified as they appeared in the unproductiveness of their fields and the unprofitableness of their labor generally. The various expressions are intended to form one general picture, and to set forth in language partly literal and partly figurative, that not only was their labor to a very large extent profitless, but that even what their fields and their manual toil did produce gave them but little enjoyment. The latter result did certainly happen, and was due, moreover, to the withdrawal of God's blessings, as appears plainly from ver. 9. But to assume that all the expressions are to be taken in their unqual- ified literalness, as Calvin, Osiander, Koehler, and Keil seem to have done, must be regarded as an unwarranted as well as unnecessary interpretation. If we compare the prediction of a similar condi- tion of things in Lev xxvi 26 (see on ver. 5), wi iO HAUUAL. find that the words : ye shall eat and shall not be satisfied, imply, as showi by the context, that the hunger threatened in case of disobedience would result simply from the scarcity of food. It is nat- ural to suppose that similar circumstances are de- scribed here by the like expressions. But to hold generally that the hunger and thirst, and cold were not in any degree removed by food, and drink, and clothing, would be to postulate a miracle quite without necessity, ^-rt^' t0 bring in, is the term proper to harvesting (coinp. 2 Sam. ix. 10, and the figurative use of the word in Ps. xc. 12). The last clause, in a striking figure, illustrates the inade- quacy of the remuneration for labor, from which we may infer that business generally was almost prostrated. This verse and vers. 9-11 are not at all incon- sistent with ver. 4. There the rebuke is directed against the wealthier members, as before indicated. They, having probably become possessed of some property in Babylon, and having prospered during the first few years of their Jewish residence, still lived in comparative prosperity, and were therefore in a position to give of their means and time to the work they had neglected. The mass of the people, however, though presumably also prosper- ous at first, were now suffering from those temporal inflictions visited upon them by God on account of their neglect of their paramount duty to Him, which would soon involve the entire community, rich and poor, in complete destitution, unless they aroused themselves from their sinful indifference. Ver. 7. The admonition of ver. 5 is repeated here, both as betokening greater urgency, and also for the purpose of reinforcing the argument of vers. 5, 6, by showing to what course a con- scientious review of tbeir conduct should determine them. They should be impelled, as is next shown, to make immediate preparations for the complete restoration of the Temple. Ver. 8. Go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the House. It is somewhat dif- ficult to determine the precise application of ""^^ in this passage. Leaving out of view the alto- gether improbable notion of Grotius, Rosenmiil- ler, ;u«l Newcome, that it refers to Mount Moriah itself, on which the Temple stood, we find that while perhaps the majority of modern expositors (e.g. J. D. Michaelis, Maurer, Keil, Moore, Fausset) regard it as a collective expression for the hilly parts of Palestine generally, in accordance with Neh. viii. 15 ; Josh. ix. 1 ; xi. 2, 32, many others (e. g., Cocceius, Ewald, Henderson) limit its appli- cation to Mount Lebanon. It is most probable that no definite mountain was thought of, the command not restricting the sphere of operation even to Pal- estine itself, but urging the people in general terms to seek building material in those districts in which it could best be obtained. It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that it was upon the high lands of the country that the most suitable timber grew. As there is no command with reference to stone for the walls, the building of which had al- ready begun (ch. ii. 18 ; Ezra iii. 10; v. 16), it is plain that " wood " is put here for building material generally. And I will take pleasure in it and will be honored. Koehler and Keil translate re- flexivcly : will glorify myself, that is, upon the people by blessing them. But this sense is not ob- rious. It is best, with Maurer, Moore, and others, to take the word in its primary application. See Textual note. Vers. 9-11. The exhortation of the last verse il now reinforced by a more fresh and elaborate pre- sentation of those disastrous consequences of diso- bedience which had been urged in ver. 6. The con- nection with ver. 8 may be easily perceived. Jeho- vah had there promised to manifest his approbation if the people would return to their duty. The cer tainty of this must be evident to them ; for was not their domestic distress a consequence of their neglect of his claims upon their service ? The ra lation of these verses to all of the discourse that precedes, becomes clearer when we perceive that the whole passage, vers, 5-11, is intended to force upon the minds of the people the consideration that ruin is awaiting them, unless they proceed at once with the rebuilding of the Temple. The command in ver. 8 therefore, though expressing the practical conclusion to which the whole mes- sage tends, is not the leading sentence in the dis- course, but is introduced as subsidiary to the main argument. Ver. 5, and again ver. 7, exhort the peo- ple to consider their ways. Ver. 8 shows the joyful consequences of obedience. Vers. 9-11 suggest, by depicting the baleful results of past disobedience, the evils which the continuance of such a course would entail. Ver. 9. Ye looked for much — every man to his own house. On the construction, see Gram- matical note. The literal translation of the first clause would be : ye turned towards much (Ex. xvi. 10). The allusion is to a frequent inspection of the growing crops. I blew upon it, for the purpose of scattering and dissipating it. The small quantity that was gathered profited but lit- tle, on account of the absence of God's blessing, according to the general notion conveyed by ver. 6. See the remarks upon that verse. Why ? saith Jehovah of Hosts. Though the present condi- tion of things could very well have been accounted for by the people themselves, Jehovah condescends to explain it to them. He Himself asks the cause, and gives the solution to which the whole of the discourse had been leading, — that while their own affairs had been absorbing their thoughts, his claims had been disregarded. Because of my house which is desolate, and ye are running every man to his own house. As in ver. 4, the different feelings with which the people were re- garding God's House and their own houses, are sharply contrasted, but here the latter do not seem to be limited in application to the dwellings them- selves, the word " house " being probably employed as the centre of that activity which they all mani- fested in their haste to attend to their own con- cerns. Ver. 10. We concur with Keil in the opinion that it is impossible to determine whether ED 1 * .73? is to be translated: above you, or: on your ac- count. We incline rather to the former view, though it is stoutly opposed by Hitzig, Henderson, and others. A difficulty likewise meets us in the rest of the clause. S^D, in the second member of the verse, is transitive, with a direct object. If transitive here also, we expect an object expressed or understood ; but Kohler and Keil, who deny an intransitive or reflexive sense, do not inform us what that object is ; for they maintain rightly that vTSB is privative (from dew), and in fact use in an intransitive sense the verb which they employ in their translation (darum \aben iiber euch du Himmel zuriickgehalten dass k in Thau Jiel). If 7I2D is priv itive, the reflexive sense would Men CHAPTER I. 1-11. U to be unavoidable. Ewald, Umbreit, Henderson, take that word as the object, and that in a parti- tive sense : has restrained of her dew, a rendering which Kohler rightly condemns as too prosaic. Ver. 1 1 . And I invoked desolation — upon all the labor of (men's) hands. This verse still depends upon the " therefore" of ver. 10, complet- ing the picture of misfortune and threatening ruin evoked by the unfaithfulness of the people. We translate 3"^n desolation, because it is the only word which will apply to all the objects cited in the verse. The phrase has moreover been chosen designedly by the Prophet to indicate both the jus tice and the fitness of the retribution. They al- lowed Gods House to lie "desolate" (vers. 4, 9). Disaster and failure had already visited their fields and the labor of their hands, and very soon, if they should remain unmoved in their guilty indif- ference, the blighting curse invoked by their of fended God would fall upon them in its unre- strained severity, when they should realize the full meaning of that sentence afterwards pronounced upon their obdurate and ungrateful descendants : Behold your house is left unto you desolate. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 1. The two great objects of the institution of Prophecy were to direct the inner life of God's people into harmony with the commands and the spirit of the Law, and to point forward to Him who was to fulfill both the Law and the Prophets. Our Prophet, >as we shall see, represented both of these functions. In this chapter he is concerned with the religious condition of the people as ex- pressed by their attitude towards God's true wor- ship. Their persistent disregard of the claims of their Deliverer and King indicated plainly a grow- ing estrangement and disloyalty of heart. They could only be recalled to devotion and duty through a message of rebuke and warning from God through an inspired and chosen messenger (comp. ver. 13). And such utterances were naturally directed against the most patent and flagrant violation of their re- ligious duty, — their neglect of the House of God. The Temple, as the centre of the Jewish worship, the place where Jehovah's presence was manifested, where national and individual sins might be cov- ered over, and where the favor of God might be invoked upon his people, was indispensable to the very life of the nation as a people of God. To neg- lect it was to commit treason against Him, to re- ject Him as their God and King, and to invite his rejection of them. 2. Such indifference to the demands of God upon the service of his people was necessarily followed by his estrangement from them. For, as the wor- ship in the Temple secured their admission into the very presence of God, it was both in type and reality a meeting not simply of reconciliation but of cordial friendship, a renewed ratification of the Covenant (comp. Rev. xxi. 3). As loving God's House and being devoted to its service, could He fittingly call them " My People : " and it seems no less fitting and necessary that indifference on their part to the enjoyment of his favor and confidence should alienate his regard, that tenderness in Him ihould become aversion, that the Israel of God should be coldly recognized as " this people." 3. But other and more palpable consequences must follow such a course of conduct on the part »f God's people. It was a warning repeatedly urged upon them by Moses in t e illustration ol that Law which was to be the guide of their na- tional and individual life; it was a lesson impressed upon them by many a hard experience of public and private distress and calamity, culminating in that long captivity from which they had so lately emerged, that the loss of God's favor involves not merely religious and moral deterioration, but the withdrawal of that providential care which secures a due return to labor, with fruitful seasons and bounteous harvests, and even follows men to their homes, leading every act and thought to enjoyment and happiness. Deprived of such care, they, in all their pursuits, might look and look again foi much, but they would surely bring in little. 4. Such dealings on the part of God towards bis people, while setting forth clearly the doctrine of retribution ( De Wette), are not simply punitive : they are also corrective and remedial in design and tendency. Otherwise prophecy would be nothing but the repeated announcement of an impending doom. Otherwise there would be no meaning in the message of our Prophet, who, while holding out to his people no other prospect than that of distress and desolation as the result of continued disobedience, presents also the inspiring and quick- ening vision of their God and King restored by their obedience to the dwelling-place which they are urged to prepare for Him, and looking forth upon them thence in favor and love (ver. 8). In this he is the prophet, not of his faithless country- men alone, but also of a God-despising yet not God abandoned world : he still calls out to men on behalf of God : Consider your ways. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Vers. 2-4. ("This people" instead of "My people"): The loss of God's confidence: (1) Its occasions ; (2) Its consequences ; (3) Its retrieval. — There is a time for everything with men ; but they should consider, (1) Who it is that claims their first and most devoted service ; (2) the means and methods of serving Him best. Calvin : Men are very ingenious, when they wish to hide their delinquencies. Matthew Henry : There is an aptness in us to misinterpret providential discouragements in our duty, as if they amounted to a discharge from our duty, when they are only intended for the trial and exercise of our courage and faith. It is bad to neglect our duty ; but it is worse to vouch Prov- idence for the patronizing of our neglects. Cramer : There are many men, who have a plenty of money when they are going to build houses for themselves, but a great scarcity of it when any is wanted for churches, or schools, or anything else to promote God's glory. Moore : The carved ceilings and costly orna- ments will have a tongue in the day of judgment. Vers. 5, 6. In considering our ways, we should seek to discover, ( 1 ) the motives that have urged us; (2) whither our present ways would lead us at the end of our earthly course. Gerlach : Fruitfulness or sterility comes from God, not from blind and powerless Nature. This is the teaching of the Scriptures from Paradise and the Fall to its close. Moore : A careful pondering of God's dealingi with us will often indicate to us God's will regard ing us. Ver. 8. God will not come to bless us as an un invited Quest- His favor will be displayed towards 12 L1AGGA1. us only when we have prepared Him a temple in our hearts. Vers. 9-11. Inflictions of suffering by God in his providence are always charged witli a salutary lesson : they are a warning to his despisers, and a correction to his children. Fausset : The very evils which men thiuk t« escape by neglecting God's ordinances, they actu- ally bring on themselves by such unbelieving neg lect. SECOND ADDRESS. On the Repentance of the People, God's Presence among Them it promised. Chapter I. 12-15. 12 And Zerubbabel, son of Shaltiel, 1 and Joshua, son of Josadak, the High Priest, and all the rest of the people, listened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words of Haggai the Prophet, according as Jehovah their God had sent him ; 13 and the people feared before Jehovah. Then Haggai the Prophet of Jehovah spoke to the people on the mission of Jehovah, saying : I am with you, saith Jeho- 14 vah. And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, son of Shaltiel, Governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Josadak, the High Priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people, and they came and worked upon the House of Jehovah 15 of Hosts their God, On the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the King. 2 TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 Ver. 12.— bfrOJ-l^ttJ. The first S is dropped here, as in ver. 14 and ch. ii. 2 ; see Green, § 58, 3 a. S Ver. 16. — Some MSS. and editions transfer this verse to the beginning of next chapter. The ordinary division if Ihown to be correct by the disagreement of dates in successive verses, which the other arrangement would involve. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. The effect of the Prophet's words upon the peo- ple was powerful and abiding, and upon the very first indication of a change in their disposition, he is commissioned to tell them that God's favor had already returned, and that He would assist them in their labors. The work is then speedily recom- menced under the influence of that new zeal with which Jehovah inspires both leaders and people. Ver. 12. The dispute among the expositors as to whether 0^7 '"'"^'S^ means : the remnant of the people, those left from the Captivity, or : the rest of the people, would seem to be needless, as it is only those who listened to the Prophet's dis- courses that are described here, and they were as- suredly not " all the remnant " of the people. It is true that the address had been delivered on a least day ; but from the religious character of the community at that time, we can hardly suppose that it had assembled in a body to worship. Nor can it be a later occasion that is alluded to, when they might be fully represented. In that case we would have to take 37J2t?T as meaning that they obeyed the voice of the Lord. Their obedience is not exhibited before vers. 14, 15, and what the present verse must mean is, that they were listen- ing to the words above recorded. The words of 1 The phrase " messenger of Jehovah " is not applied to prophets exclusively ; see Mai. ii. 7, where it, is employed tt the priestH. It was a term more appropriate to the province of the former, but, especially in later times when Haggai the Prophet are, doubtless, not an addi- tional discourse of Haggai unrecorded ; they ex- plain, by hendiadys, the voice of Jehovah their God, the message just delivered. It is unneces- sary, with Koehler, Keil, et al., to render v>57 ""Q"?, according to. It is in fact questionable whether ? and 'V indicate any difference in the ap- plication of V12W. In 2 Kiugs xx. 13 ; Jer. xxiii 16, V is used with this verb in the sense of listen ing to. "'H?W3 has here chiefly a causal sense They discerned in the words of Haggai, the voice of God, and they listened to his address because he attested himself to be God's messenger. And the people feared before Jehovah. This clause in- dicates one of the causes of the rapt attention of the people, as well as its most important result. Ver. 13. I am with you, saith Jehovah. This brief message, 1 delivered at this crisis, is one of great significance in the experience of the people as reflected in the discourses of the Prophet. The fact that God could now promise his presence and assistano* is proof that their fear before Him was followed by sincere repentance. In their ultimate significance the words themselves contain the only explanation of the immediate revival of the com munity, political and religious. prophecy was retiring more into the background, its func- tions were often naturally transferred in some measure tc the former, who thus became ttackert of the people. Comp Hiivernick, Einlritung, J M6. CHAPTER II. 1-9. 1* Vers. 14, 15. The promised presence and assist- ance of God, immediately vouchsafed, were mani- fested in the rekindled ardor of the discouraged leaders, who, with the repentant people, were now animated to engage with cheerful alacrity in the work to which they were summoned. After about three weeks spent in preparing material sufficient to justify the inception of the work, the walls of the Second Temple began again to rise from the foundations which had been laid fifteen years be- fore by the same people. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. It is a decisive moment in the life of an individ- ual or of a people when they are addressed with words of solemn warning, and discern therein the voice of God. On submission or indifference to those words is suspended their weal or woe, their glory or ruin. Let them but listen with that sav- ing fear (HS^, ver. 12) which is not hopeless ter- ror, but in reality the birth-throes of a new and living hope, and Jehovah of Hosts Himself comes to be with them ; and that not only for inspiration Hat also for help ; the one being the condition of all noble exertion, the other the sure pledge of it* triumph. HOMILETICAL AND PBACT1CAL Ver. 12. Successful preachers need not ascribe to themselves the merit of the results of their la- bors. It is the voice of God which makes theii hearers listen. — Whom God would make strong for his service He first subdues to his fear. Vers. 13, 14. The presence of God in our la- bors: (1) The conditions on which it may be se- cured; (2) Its influences upon our souls ; (3) Its consequences in our achievements. Burck : " I am with you : " here all former threatening is recalled, and all former disobedi- ence forgiven : When God, the Prime Mover, moves the heart, then the work moves forward. Matthew Henry : When God has work to do, He will either find or make men fit to do it, and stir them up to it. Those that have lost time have need to redeem time. Moore : God is waiting to be gracious, and will meet the returning wanderer, even before his hand has begun the work of his service. THIRD ADDRESS. The Glory of the Second Temple. Chapter II. 1-9. 1 In the seventh (month), and the twenty-first (day) of the month there was m 2 word of Jehovah by the hand of Haggai the Prophet, saying : Speak, now, to Zerubbabel, son of Shaltiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua, son of Jozadak, the 3 high priest, and to the rest of the people, saying: Who among you is left 1 that has seen this house in its former glory ? And what are seeing it (to be) now ? Is not 4 such 2 (a one) as it like nothing in your eyes ? But come ! be strong, Zerubbabel, saith Jehovah ; and be strong Joshua, son of Jozadak, high priest ; and be strong, all the people of the land, saith Jehovah ; for I am with you, saith Jehovah of Hosts, 5 With the word 3 which I covenanted with you when you were coming out of Egypt ; 6 and my Spirit is abiding in your midst ; fear not. For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, Once more * — it is a little while — and I will be shaking the heavens and the earth, 7 and the sea and the dry land. And I will shake s all the Gentiles ; and the treasures. of all the Gentiles shall come ; and I shall fill this house with glory, saith Jeho- 8 vah of Hosts. The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith Jehovah of Hosts. 9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, saith Jehovah of Hosts ; and in this house I will give peace, saith Jehovah of Hosts. TEXTUAL IND GRAMMATICAL. 1 Ver. 3. — "1HK72n. The article Is employed here (= who Is the one that is left) because the predicate is made definite by the description which follows (that has beheld this House, etc.) ; comp. Jer. xlix. 36. and see Green, R 245, 1 Bwald,§277a. . •*—>-» « Ver. 3. — ifD (= qualem) agrees with VYlN as the attributive of the object, Ewald, § 325 a, ad finem. Thil a«e of Hip (as suggesting the character of the object) seems to justify the explanation of *pSD ^HOS after the poalogy of Joel ii. 2 : Is not such (a one) as it as nothing in your eyes? See Ewald, § 105 b, 1. So Riickert, Maurer, Hitzig, Moore. To this Koehler, and after him Keil, object that then it would not be the Temple, but something like it that is compared to nothing, which would be very tame. But every one knows that in expressions of this kind " such " wters to the subject of discourse with an allusion at the same time to its character. Here ^HED (=a temple like tola) would niturally refer back to HE '.«= what sort of Temple ?). Hence we prefer this view to the one more oonv M HAGGAI. mooly entertained, and upheld by these critics, that we have here an inversion ot the usual orler of the partit es ol comparison : Is not as nothing so it ? = Is it not as nothing ; comp. Gen. xviii. 25 ; xliv. 18 (as Pharaoh so thou). Tin rendering adopted by Rosenmuller, Eichhorn, el al., as well as by E. V. and most English expositorn, is indefensible. 8 Ver. 5. — ""Q'-TrTnS. See the exegesis, which involves in this passage so much grammatical discussion that w« T T - remit the latter to that section 4 Ver. 6. — The reasons decisive against the opinion that f"inH is joined as a numeral adjective to tTi'p ar « (1) that the latter is never feminine, and (2) that iu such a construction the numeral always follows the substantive. Se« the exegesis, where other grammatical difficulties connected with the passage are discussed. 6 Ver. 7. — The perfects in this verse have the force of the future perfect and not of the prophetic perfect : I shall have shaken, etc. So in ver. 22. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. The rebukes and warnings and encouragements of the Prophet having thus exerted their due in- fluence, it might seem as if no further message were needed. But a new danger soon threatened to retard the progress of the work, a manifestation of despondency on the part of some of the people. It was natural that those of them who had beheld the first Temple in its magnificent beauty, would feel somewhat dispirited at the sight of the new structure, so inferior in outward attractions, and awakening so many suggestions of national de- cline and calamity, and that their feelings of de- jection would soon spread through a large part of the community. These symptoms, on their very first appearance, called forth the third address of the Prophet, which, however it may be interpreted in detail, must be admitted to be a noble product of the genuine prophetic spirit, and of the highest significance in that period of their history on which the people were now entering. We may con- sider it in three aspects according to its three lead- ing ideas : ( 1 ) as adapted to encourage the people in their present dejection ; (2) as suggesting those characteristics, religious and moral, of the new era, which would prove it superior to any former period of Israel's history; (3) as predicting the glory of the universal Church of God, represented by the second Temple. How these ideas are con- tained in the address will appear in the course of the exposition. Vers. 1, 2. Comparing the date with the time in which the work began (i. 15), it will be seen that more than three weeks had elapsed, duringwhich the enthusiasm of the less ardent of the builders would have begun to flag. To this change of feeling, a circumstance would contribute which was noticed by Cocceius, that the 2 1st day of the seventh month was the seventh and last day of the Feast of Tab- ernacles, on which occasion, as it was the close of the ingathering, thanks were to be rendered for bountiful harvests. A certain degree of despond- ency would be excited by the recollection that the harvest of the present year had been so scanty (ch. ii. 9-11). Hence there was all the more ur- gent occasion for some word of comfort and cheer. We must remember that such a state of feeling would be quite unlike that posture maintained by the people, which had evoked the first discourse Then their selfish indifference had to be met by reproach and warning ; now their fainting courage must be sustained and their feeble faith revived by encouragement and promise. Ver. 3. Who is he that is left among you ? . Is it not such (a Temple) as this like noth- ing in your eyes ? We have no evidence that the feeling of disappointment among the people was openly expressed, or that it was sufficient to prompt them to suspend their labors. All the greater and more considerate is seen to be Jeho- rah's returning favor. He would have them not merely steadfast, but also cheerful and hopeful in their work. He first addresses those who must have suffered most keenly in reflecting upon the outward appearance of the present structure — those who had beheld the splendor of its predeces- sor. It was not quite seventy years since the de- struction of the First Temple, and there must hav« been some of those still remaining, whose weeping voices had thrown such a gloom upon the cere- mony of laying the foundation of the present House (Ezra iii. 12, 13), with whom the Kingdom of Israel was not a matter of tradition but of per- sonal experience. If they could be comforted, much more likely was it that the younger and more susceptible portion would be encouraged and cheered. It is noteworthy that the contrast be- tween the two temples is made by Jehovah as strong as possible. He seems to admit that their dejection was natural, and by sharing their feel- ings, so to speak, He gives a most winning and re- assuring evidence of his condescension and sym- pathy. On the construction and proper rendering of the last clause, see Grammatical Note. Vers. 4, 5. But come ! be strong Zerubbabel — fear not. The depressing tendency of the pres- ent circumstances was admitted ; but this was no reason why the people should repine. In the first place, they might plead with perfect confidence the gracious promise which they had a little before so joyfully received (ch. i. 13). And if God was in- deed with them, not only would the possession of his favor and the enjoyment of his presence compen- sate for all past distresses, and be all-sufficient for the new and untried future, but his help, his work- ing with them, would establish the work of their hands, and in his strength they would be strong. He declares to them besides, that, as the Covenant is still in force, they are as much the object of his care as when that Covenant was first ratified, and that in the power of his Spirit resident with and among them, they would continually enjoy his presence and support. Such is the general sense of vers. 4, 5, and it is not materially affected whatever be the true construc- tion of the latter verse, concerning which there has been much difference of opinion. The chief diffi- culty lies in the ambiguity of ""Q^^'Hr*. The solutions that have been proposed under the sup- position that <""IW is the sign of the definite object will first come under review. Some, notably Ewald and Hengstenberg, suppose that the governing word (probably 'TOT . remember), is understood at the beginning of the verse. (Remember) the word which I covenanted with you, when you came forth from Egypt and my spirit dwelt in the midst of you : fear not. Besides the obvious objection, that this construction does not readily suggest it- self, it may be remarked that a reference to Ex xx. 20, which Hengstenberg regards as establish- ing his view, seems out nf place, not onlv from tht CHAPTER II. 1-y. la improbability in general of an allusion to a com- paratively unimportant expression uttered so many ages before, but also from the utter want of anal- ogy between the present circumstances of the peo- ple and the situation supposed to be compared with them here. Moreover (it is not too much to say), on that special occasion the Spirit of God was not resting upon the people, as their conduct immediately thereafter abundantly proves (Ex. xxxii. 7, 8). Finally, there would seem to be not merely a certain incongruity between such a refer- ence and the whole drift of the discourse, but the allusion would absolutely weaken the latter in its well-sustained and lofty flight. Equally unsatis- factory upon exegetical, though preferable on grammatical grounds, is the opinion (of Aben Ez- ra, D. Kimchi, CEcolampadius, Rosenmiiller) that "n^nVI^ is the object of "ifi?2?3i either repeated from ver 5 or with the last clause of that verse farenthetical : perform the word (covenant) which concluded with you .... then will my spirit abide with you. As Hitzig remarks, they were not to fulfill the commands of the Law, but to build the Temple. Others again (Ruckert, Hitzig, Koeh- ler, Keil, Henderson, and Pressel) take n# as the " sign of the definite nominative of the subject." It is not to be denied that in spite of the elaborate attempt made by Maurer in his Commentary to throw doubt upon the existence of this construc- tion, there are a few cases which seem to prove its occasional though rare occurrence. The meth- ods, however, that have been suggested by its ablest suppoiters to account for it here, virtually make it the sign of the definite object — another form of the view last mentioned. It is supposed either that "Q^rPHS is attracted into the case of ""j*-^ a usage unknown to the Hebrew language, a single example of which is wrongly claimed in Zech. viii. 17 (see Ewald, § 277 d), or that the Prophet had intended to write **JTTlD"£n instead of ^!7^^ after ^rTH, making all that precedes the object of that verb : ( I have established the word .... and my Spirit among you). Why he should have abandoned his original intention we are not told. If he had done so, he would probably have erased the nS, as any other writer would do under like circumstances. More precarious still is the notion of De Wette, who regards HN as = ipse, according to the meaning which Gesenius has attributed to that word as the primary one. He renders : this word, etc., referring to the last clause of ver. 4 : I am with you. Maurer has been more successful in combat- ing this theory with regard to HM, since he has shown clearly that it need never be taken as a distinctive or demonstrative pronoun. Luther, Calvin, Eichhorn, Maurer, Newcome, Noyes, Moore, and Fausset regard "^"jnVIN as the "accusative of the norm or standard." So our E. V. : according to the word, etc. It may be admitted that the accusative is sometimes used absolutely in Hebrew to express such a notion ; but if it had been so employed here, it is hardly conceivable that the j"1N, which would have been certain to be misunderstood, and moreover, super- fluous, would have been inserted. No example can be found of its occurrence in such a construc- tion. We are therefore compelled to assume that HS is here a preposition : with, as Cocceius, | [Marckius, J. D. Michaelis, and Stier have also done. The first member of ver. 5 would thus be an adjunct of the last clause of ver. 4, and the second member parallel to it. Vers. 4, 5 might then be thus paraphrased : " Be strong, my peo- ple, for henceforth I am with you. I come into your midst with the Covenant which I made with you, when first you became my people. I renew it with you now that you have returned to Me ; I will support and aid you as I have ever done to- wards my faithful people ; My spirit is resting upon you ; behold in this my faithfulness proved and my promise of help fulfilled." The only ob- jection of any weight that can be brought against this view is that the repetition of " with " in a clause which is not appositive would create* a cer- tain degree of awkwardness in the sentence. This must be admitted ; and yet it is probable that tho matter has been regarded too much according to the standard of our Occidental analytical and flexi- ble languages, and that the locution would be lesi offensive to the taste of an ancient Hebrew. Koehier makes the objection, which is repeated by Keil, that if the J*"lhjj of ver. 5 had been a prepo- sition, we should have had in ver. 4, for the sake of euphony, 25*f V instead of D*3.*\IS. But in such cases as this it is merely the close recurrence of similar sounds that offends ; the fact that the words are identical in meaning is quite without influence. It is therefore a sufficient answer to these objections to say that the obnoxious sound it repeated here, where, according to the construc- tion held by these critics, the word nS, repre- senting it, is at best superfluous. In accordance with what has been said, the word which I cov- enanted with you, etc., must be understood as the promise of God's continuing presence and fa- vor, suspended upon the obedience of the people, which expressed his obligations with respect to the Covenant made at Sinai, whose validity was to be perpetual. That the words my Spirit refer to the sustaining and comforting influence of the Holy Spirit upon the people, and not to the gift of such special qualifications for the present work as were imparted to Bezaleel and his assistants, Ex. xxxi. I (Osiander, Koehier), or to that of the spirit of prophecy (Targum, J. D. Michaelis, Newcome, Henderson), is plain if we consider, (1) that the exhortations are addressed to the whole people, and (2) that only through an immediate and widely spread influence could their incipient despondency be removed and exchanged for cheerful courage. Such inspiration received and operating, just as it might be sought and prized, would soon cause them to forget their fallen fortunes, in their efforts to speed the coming of the promised triumph. They might expect even more than this. Not only would the loss of Israel's ancient glory be more than made up to the little colony by" the abiding presence and help of their Covenant God : the very structure on which they were then en- gaged, though unadorned by the gilded magnifi- cence of the former Temple, would yet, in its purer and more spiritual worship, possess a glory all its own, to which its predecessor had never attained, and would thus prefigure that everlasting Temple, whose transcendent and ever-increasing glory would be displayed in the pilgrimage thither of worshippers from every nation, laden with their choicest offerings, and still more in the unre- strained and continuing presence of the indwelling Spirit. The verses which contain these promise* 16 HAGGAl. are so closely connected that we must expound them as a whole. Vers. 6-9. For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts .... I will give peace, saith Jehovah of Hosts. The phrase WH 1^V72 J"inS T)37 in ver. 6 has always been the occasion of much dispute. Tak- ing a survey of the different views, we find that the rendering : it is yet a little (while), of the Tar- gum (t^n VCTty Sin 1137) and the Vulgate (ad hue unum modicum est) has been adopted by Lu- ther, Calvin, Grotius, and by later expositors, as Ruckert, Maurer, Hengstenberg, Ewald, Umbreit, and Moore, HHS being regarded by most of them as = the indefinite article, but by Hengstenberg as strictly a numeral adjective. Reference is made, in support of this view, to Ex. xvii. 4 ; Ps. xxxvii. 10 ; Hos. i. 4, and other passages, in all of which cases, however, ^PP is either unaccompanied by an attributive or followed by *^T^?> — an entirely different construction. Insuperable grammatical difficulties attend this view, whichever of its above- mentioned modifications be adopted, as may be seen from the grammatical note on this verse ; and the laws of the language must be suffered to de- cide against it. This consideration has led the majority of modern expositors to regard the sen- tence as made up of two members : HHS "PV and S^H T23?p. But among these again there is a disagreement as to the true force of HHW. The greater number (including most of the later An- glo-American expositors, after the E. V., Coccei- us, Marckius, Koehler, Keil, and Pressel), follow the LXX. (iVi &ra£), who, however, left H^H t33?» untranslated. They understand D^Q, which is often feminine, with j""inS, and make the expres- sion = once, as in Ez. xxx. 10 ; 2 Kings vi. 10; Job xl. 5 ; Josh. v. 2. They accordingly translate the sentence: once more — it is a little while, etc. Hitzig, Hofmann ( Weissagung und Erfullung, i. 330), Delitzsch (Comm. zum Briefe an die Htbrder, ch. xii. 26), understand HV instead of D??« and render: one period more — a brief one is it, etc. The Prophet is then supposed to have declared ( 1 ) " that the period between the present and the pre- dicted great change of the world, will be but one period, i. e., one uniform epoch, and (2) that this epoch will be" a brief one" (Delitzsch). But it cannot be shown without overworking the passage that this idea possesses any pertinency to the Prophet's design ; it seems strange in the connec- tion. Its advocates also ignore the distinction be- tween prophecy and history. It must therefore be decided that 03?S is the word to be supplied, which is distinguished from H37 as occasion is from oenod, and that the proper rendering is : Once more — it is a little (while) — and, etc. The use of "J to mark the consequent clause of the sentence after a statement of time is in accordance with Hebrew usage ; see Green, § 287, 3. WH in the parenthetical clause is the copula (Green, § 258, 2) und not the predicate, as Koehler asserts. It is conformed in gender to HnS, which it represents. It is natural to assume that "VtV preserves here its usual sense : yet, again, more. Koehler, however, takes it to mean : henceforth, in the future, ana the whole sentence as announcing that from this time forward the world would be shaken once, and only once. This he does not rest upon linguistic grounds, referring, as he does, to 2 Sam. xix. 36 ; 2 Chron. xvii. 6, only to show that the meaning proposed is admissible. Now, without maintain- ing the untenable position (as we think it) of Keil, that Ti57 always retains its primary sense of rep- etition or return, it is yet undeniable that it inva- riably preserves such a force when connected with a temporal term or phrase, such as nnS has been shown to be in our passage. Koehler bases his opinion upon the notion that repetition cannot be implied here, because no such commotions of na- ture as are here predicted had ever occurred before this time, not even during the delivery of the Law at Sinai, which is usually supposed to be alluded to in the passage. In disproving this statement there is no necessity of referring to the sense of T137 as understood by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. xii. 26, 27) or even to the inference which he draws from the words "once more " of our Prophet ; for there we have simply the author- ity of the LXX., which is quoted and applied after the custom of the New Testament writers. We may, however, cite the opinion of that inspired Writer, that it was the shaking of Sinai that the Prophet had in mind — an opinion evidently held without the least reference to the interpretation of mjb$ "T137> one, in fact, assumed by him as un- questioned. This any one will perceive on even the most superficial examination of the passage Heb. xii. 18-29. Koehler asserts that the shaking of Sinai cannot be alluded to here, because the commotions here foretold were to affect all nature, while the descriptions of the giving of the Law do not refer to any disturbance beyond the Sinai tic region. But such passages as Judges v. 4, 5 ; Ps. lxviii. 8. 9 ; Hab. iii. 6, represent all nature as hav- ing been then moved at the coming of God. If it should be urged that such poetical conceptions are largely figurative, it may be replied that the con- vulsions here alluded to are themselves largely fig- urative, as will be presently shown. The force of the Prophet's allusion to the phenomena at Sinai we conceive to be this : He is now holding out to the faith of his desponding people the prospect of a new era, which was to be prefigured by their present Temple. The former dispensation, out of which they were soon to pass, and of which the former Temple was the symbol and crown, had been announced and prepared by the shaking of Sinai and the other wonders wrought in the realm of nature during the disciplinary experience of their fathers previous to their entrance iuto the Promised Land. This second, final dispensation was also to be ushered in by shakings and convul- sions. These, in accordance with the more spiritual character of the new era, were to occur not so much in the physical as in the moral sphere, the former class, however, not to be excluded. In accordance with the wider enjoyment of the new economy, its portents, so far as they were to occur in the exter- nal world, would affect all nature, so far as they were to affect human thought and action, were to affect all nations. It remains to be seen how thi» universal shaking is effected. That the words I will be shaking the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, have chiefly a fig- urative application, becomes clear from a compari son with such passages as Ps. lx. 2; xviii. 7-15 CHAPTER II. 1-9. 17 Is. xiii. 13; lxiv. 1-3, where God's judgments are represented under images drawn from the phenom- ena of nature ; also from others such as Is. lxv. 17 (eomp Ixvi 22, and with tins the words "once more'' in our verse), in which, as the context shows, the blessed results upon humanity are compared to a new heaven and a new earth. We do not even need to go beyond our own book for illustration. In ch. ii. 21 we have expressions similar to those here employed, which must have largely a figura- tive significance, since the overthrow of the sur- rounding nations was all that the convulsions there predicted were to accomplish, as our exegesis of the passage will show. The various depart- ments of nature are particularized so as to present a vivid picture of the universal commotions and of the consequent transformation of the world. The prediction has its literal fulfillment also, in so far as remarkable natural phenomena have a porten- tous significance, in the divine dealings with man, — a truth recognized both by the Scriptures and by profane writers. We must remember, however, that the representation is here of a very general nature. With these conclusions in view it will appear that vers. 6, 7 describe the working of God with its resulting marvelous change in the aspect of the world in general, and more especially in its influence upon mankind nationally and individ- ually, 1 preparing them for the universal reception of the blessings of the promised epoch. The allu- sion must therefore be to all movements in the history of humanity, either before or since the coming of Christ, which have disposed men to own Christ as their Lord and Saviour. And of these it is most natural to consider as more imme- diately intended, those various political convul- sions which changed the aspect of the civilized world and adjusted the nations for the ready recep- tion and rapid spread of the Gospel — the conquests of Alexander, and the wars of his successors, with their tendency to combine and equalize the nations involved, and to weaken the spirit of national ex- clusiveness, to promote mutual intercourse through the medium of a common language, in which at first the Old Testament and at last the New were given to the world ; followed by the gradual but irresistible progress of Roman supremacy uniting the East and the West, and resulting, on the one hand, in the decline of paganism or national re- ligion, and on the other, in the prevalence of a long and universal peace, so favorable to the spread of the religion of mankind. — Such was the immediate fulfillment of the prediction. But we are not warranted in stopping here. In accord- ance with the true interpretation of the second clause of ver. 7 (to be given presently), we must regard the convulsions as coextensive with their influence. All nations were to contribute to the glory of the Church of Christ, and whatever exer- cise of the divine power in the external world or in the spiritual sphere, should dispose man to the service of Jehovah, must be included in that mov- ing of the world which should lead to its trans- formation. Hence we need not restrict the fulfill- ment of the prediction to the political changes which prepared the way for the reception of Chris- tianity, as has usually been done, but may behold it also in those subsequent events in the world's history, political, social, or moral, which have ■ubserved (and never more conspicuously than in l Nations are named here in accordance with the guarded and partial representation of the salvation of the Gentiles peculiar to the Old Testament. But individuals Me not therefore excluded; the; are rather plainly and our own day) the growth and glory of the Cliurch of Christ. We may even admit the partial cor- rectness of Calvin's explanation, that the shaking denotes that marvelous supernatural and violent impulse by which God compels his people to betake themselves to the fold of Christ. The view of Hengstenberg and Keil, at all events, is beside the mark, who suppose that the shaking of the nations is intended to set forth the punitive judgments of God upon the heathen, as leading them to submit themselves to his rule. As a matter of fact, it was not, to any great extent, the judgments of God that led the heathen to accept the Gospel. When, therefore, Hengstenberg attempts to apply his the- ory to the preparation for Christ's coming, he natu- rally fails. Appeal is made to vers. 21-23, where a shaking of heaven and earth is predicted in con- nection with the overthrow of surrounding nations. But the passages are not parallel. Vers. 21-23 are not in the strict sense Messianic ; our passage is. The subject there is the opposition between the heathen and God's people; and no hint is given of the conversion of the former. The sub- ject here is the honor to be put upon the Church of Christ (represented by the Second Temple) by its reception of worshippers from all nations. The notion of the punishment of the heathen is remote from the idea of the promise and irrelevant to the discourse as a whole. The consequence of this divine influence upon mankind is next given : D^Hn - 7D .TH^n ^S^ But what is meant by D^inn rnari " The ren- dering of the E. V. : The desire of all nations, ac- cording to which the Messiah is referred to as the object that should satisfy the universal longings of men, has always been a favorite interpretation. The translation of the Vulgate was : " et venit desideratus cunctis gentibus," and this was followed by the Reformers (except Calvin), by the older orthodox Commentators generally, and among English Expositors, last by Fausset. So confi- dently has their opinion been held, that Ribera suspected the later Jews of having corrupted the passage by changing a singular verb into the plural ( : lS2'i), with the design of throwing diffi- culties in the way of the true interpretation. It has been accepted so widely by the Christian Church through the influence of the various Ver- sions that it is still everywhere daily heard in their hymns and prayers. It is natural, moreover, that many should have been unwilling to give up a prediction which seemed to embody such a great and inspiring truth. But such an interpretation cannot stand the test of correct criticism. In the first place, we must have regard to the aim of the discourse, the encouragement of the people in building the Temple, by assuring them that its glory would yet be great. This object would not have been subserved by foretelling the coming of a Person for whom all the Gentiles were longing. Such a promise would give no special comfort to the Jews. The only reason why the " nations " 1 were referred to must have been that they them- selves would contribute to the future glory. Sec- ondly, it is impossible to see what connection the silver and the gold of ver. 8 can have with the coming of the Messiah, though that verse is evi- dently introduced as confirmatory of this. But, specially regarded ; for the constraining force is ultimately not outward compulsion, but the influence of ths Spirit upon the heart, as the discourse itself implies 18 HAGGAI finally, the view in question is untenable gram- matically. •'W-p is plural, while its subject j"VNj?n is singular, 'l'hat subject, therefore, cannot be a person. It is impossible to evade the force of this argument ; and when we discover that such ex- pedients have been adopted as to assume that Christ's two Natures are referred to, the hopeless- ness of the attempt becomes evident. It has in- deed been urged that when a plural noun depends upon and follows a singular, the verb may in He- brew agree with the plural. This is true in cer- tain cases, namely, when the predicate may nat- urally be referred to the governed word as con- taining the controlling idea of the sentence (comp. Green, § 277). This is of course not the case here. It is not the nations themselves who are repre- sented as coming, but their i"TTOri. More admis- sible grammatically is the modification proposed by Cocceius, who translates : I will shake all na- tions, that they may come to the desire of all na- tions." But the first argument adduced against the preceding view is decisive also against this. It only remains that we take Hjipri as a collec- tive, — which its originally abstract sense renders natural, and as the plural verb demands. 1 The true sense of niDIl here may be readily deduced from the usage of its primitive "t£2n : to desire, to take delight in. The derivation means, first, the emotion of pleasure, and next, an object of de- sire or delight (1 Sam. ix. 20; Dan. xi. 37). We have now only to decide whether it relates to per- sons or to things. The former sense with the ex- planation : what is valuable or worthy among the heathen — j. e., the best of the Gentiles — has been adopted by Theodore of Mopsuestia, Cappellus, Riickert, Hitzig, Umbreit, and Fiirst (in his Wor- terbuch). But here, also, all connection with ver. 8 fails us. The only meaning which satisfies all the conditions of the passage is : the desirable things of the nations ; not : the things desired by the nations realized in the blessings of the Mes- siah's reign, as Henderson holds, — an explanation which like those previously noticed should be dis- carded because of its want of connection with the context, and its irrelevancy to the discourse as a whole. We accordingly translate : the desirable or precious things, the treasures of the nations, as most of the later Commentators have done. So the LXX. appear to have understood it (fj|et rd e'(cAe«To ttolvtov tuv 4dva>v, not ^|ouffi, not persons but things). Their explanation was adopted in the Itala and Vulgate, and by Kimchi, and was completely established by Calvin, the most judi- cious and penetrating of Commentators. Since the Reformation it has been held, among others by Drusius and Vitringa, by Rosenmiiller, Maurer, Hengstenberg, Hofmann, Koehler, Keil, Ewald,' 2 and among English Expositors, by Adam Clarke, Newcome, Noyes, Moore, and Cowles. Hengsten- berg, indeed, followed by Moore, assumes unten- 1 Even in Ps. cxlx. 103 (he subject Is collective ; in Jer. xi. 84 it is distributive. 2 Ewald, who formerly (in his Gomm.j maintained that the "choice (persons) " of the Gentiles were meant (see above), now seems to agree with this opinion. In his Sprachiehre (§ 317 b), he explains the word by Kostbarkeiten. 3 Compare for the idea of glory imparted by material treasures, Nahum ii. 10 (9). 4 It has been said that Herod really erected a third Itonple instead of repairing the second. But this mode of UB*essiOD shows a want of perception of the divine and ably that ~?P.T properly means beauty, but bott writers adopt the usual explanation in their ex- position. From whatever stand-point we regard this interpretation, its correctness becomes appar ent. Grammatically it is unassailable. If we re vert to the occasion of the discourse, we find that it contains the very ground of encouragement which the desponding people required. They had no need to be disheartened because of the present condition of the Temple. The outward adorn- ments which had rendered the former structure so attractive were indeed absent, but these would be more than surpassed in splendor by the precious gifts which all nations should yet bring, to make glorious Jehovah's dwelling-place. If we regard the immediate context, the interpretation becomes self-evident. The display of the precious metals in the first Temple was mournfully remembered by the people in their poverty. But the silver and gold of the whole earth were God's, much more glorious would be that Temple which should be adorned by the treasures of all nations which He should dispose to his worship and service. We have next to inquire into the fulfillment of this remarkable prediction. And the question first suggests itself : is the promise to be fulfilled in a literal or in a figurative sense, or in both ? The answer will throw additional light also upon the concluding words of ver. 7 : I will fill this house with glory. 3 Let us now see to what extent the Gentiles did bring of their treasures to the sec- ond Temple. The command of Darius Hystaspes, given soon after, that abundant supplies should be allowed the Jews to forward their labors, cannot properly come into consideration here, because it was not a consequence of any such shaking of the nations as that just predicted. The same remark applies to the presents of Artaxerxes Longimanus and his councillors through Ezra. We must look beyond the mighty political convulsions of the age of Alexander and his successors, in which, as we have seen, the shaking of the nations first ac- tually began. And here, as Calvin has shown, and Hengstenberg more fully, the renewal of the second Temple by Herod must be excluded from consideration. Herod was a foreigner, it is true, but his labors were not prompted by reverence for Jehovah, but by worldly policy. 4 But the case was different with the offerings of those proselytes who, in the decline of polytheism sought to sat- isfy their religious aspirations by paying their homage to the one true God in his Temple. These gifts, however, were little more than a pledge of the higher, more glorious fulfillment. Otherwise the prophecy would have remained unfulfilled. The Temple (in its true idea and divine purpose) must be merged into the Church of Christ, the offerings of whose worshippers must have that predominantly spiritual character which should mark the Messianic times. (1.) Because the pre- diction is given as a revelation from God. Its ful- fillment is certain. 6 A literal fulfillment has been prophetic idea of the institution. Herod's Temple mint still be regarded as the second, even though it be conceded that he erected a new structure. A new Temple must in- troduce a new era. 6 Some of the Jewish Comnrentators would not readily agree with this. Philippson (Israeli tische Bibel, ii. 1489), after showing that Herod's Temple, which he rightly re- fuses to regard as a third Temple, was with all its splendor still inferior to Solomon's, and after admitting that ver. 7, which he renders correctly, has not been literally fulfilled, remarks as follows : " The Prophets give promises for "ta« CHAPTER II. 1-9. 19 shiwn to be untenable; we have therefore to seek a spiritual one. (2.) This promise is but one of a large class of similar predictions in the Old Testa- ment whose spiritual realization is assured by the New. Comp. Is. lx. 5, 9-11 ; Micah x. 13 ; Zech. xiv. 14, with Rev. xxi. 24-26. The harmony and connection of our passage with these is convin- cing. (3.) After the restoration the outward splen- dor of the Temple was never a matter of Divine cognizance. The rebukes of the prophets directed against the people were not due to any failure on their part to enhance its external glory. In- deed we have good reason to think that they were encouraged to make this of little account. It is at least certain that the spirit cherished by the Jews, which ultimately led to their rejection, and to the destruction of the Temp'e, was tlu senti- ment that found expression in the reverence for the gold of the Temple, which called forth so scathing a denunciation from the lips of Jesus, and that, in his refusal to admire the grandeur of that structure, He was moved by something more than the mere prevision of its coming ruin, that He recognized in that terrible calamity the divine- ly just result of the loss of spiritual worship which universally prevailed. And if the failure to dis- cern that the Temple was only the embodiment and symbol of spiritual truths marked the decline and fall of Judaism, it was necessary that the Church of God, the true Temple beneath the gold, and outward adornings, should without los- ing its identity, divest itself of external form, to invite and receive spiritual worshippers from all nations. Upon these grounds we claim the fitness and necessity of a spiritual fulfillment of this pre- diction. What the treasures are which all nations were to bring to the Church of God is not far to seek. All material offerings presented since the establishment of Christ's kingdom, for the pur- pose of advancing its extension or inward growth, are of course included. But the offerings of the heart — the prayers and praises of the multitudes that throng more and more about the gates of Zion, as the nations are shaken more and more by forces of the Spirit's moving, and their self-re- nouncing devotion of soul and life to her service, — mainly constitute the perpetual and progressive fulfillment of the prediction. And in the presence of God among his adoring people we have the idea embodied in the ancient Temple realized, and the crowning promises of this prophecy fulfilled : I will fill this House with glory .... In this place I will give peace. It is the presence of Jehovah that sheds glory upon the Church, his Temple and dwelling-place, that imparts inward peace and joy, and outward peace and prosperity (Dwtt?) to its members in ever-increasing meas- ure ; but that Presence is vouchsafed to meet and reward the submission and service of his people, gathered from every nation under heaven. There is another important point in connection with this subject which needs to be discussed. The fact that all these promises are applied direct- ly to " this house," and that, as the subject of such glorious 'predictions the second Temple is sharply contrasted with the first, proves that there future, not in order to predict, but in order to ameliorate the present and to incite to holy actions. Israelites have themselves made the fulfillment of these prophecies impos- sible by refusing to rise to th03e higher conditions in which alone, according to the declarations of the Prophets them- selves, the promises would be fulfilled." Comp. p. 922. This is the logical result of the Jewish theory ; for though must have been something connected with tht former, as compared with the latter, constituting it a more fit representative of the Church of Christ. This feature of the discourse is worthy of a much fuller treatment than is here practi- cable. We only remark at present that the car- dinal distinction must have consisted in the more spiritual character which life, and faith, and wor- ship assumed in the best times of Judaism after the Restoration, the Temple being of course un- derstood to represent then, as of old, the theocrat- ic community of which it was the centre. Rites and ceremonies retired more into the background; and prayer began to assume its true place in pub- lic worship. The religious knowledge of the peo- ple was kept up through the regular public read- ing and distribution of the Scriptures, which were early collected into their present canonical form. Synagogues were established, the people having learnt at Babylon that God's presence might be enjoyed in their assemblies in any place or circum- stances. Thus there was kept alive throughout the nation a higher and purer type of religion than it had known in the days when the first Temple with its outward splendor and gorgeous ritual excited the admiration of the people, but toe seldom led their thoughts to the contemplation of the truths it expressed and prefigured. These we regard as some of the characteristics of the second Temple, which on the one hand exalted it above its predecessor, and on the other assimilated it to the Church of Christ, of which it thus be- came the fit representative in the Divine promises This was the true glory of the Second Temple. The question finally suggests itself: If this ex position be correct, why were these promises veiled in such a material form ? The same difficulty must be equally felt in the consideration of the similar passages in the Prophets already cited. It is not a sufficient answer to say that such is the uniform drapery in which prophetic promise is clothed. The answer which exhibits the inner fit- ness and necessity of the mode of communication, is that such a form was the only one suited to the conditions under whicli the promise was given. Its recipients would have been dissatisfied with the full and clear revelation as not meeting their im- mediate needs, and moreover could neither have grasped its meaning nor appreciated its worth. They were not as yet prepared to receive the doc- trine of an invisible Temple and a universal Church, as the nations themselves were not prepared for the coming and reign of their common Redeemer. Hence it was best that the glories of his kingdom should be described in words suited to their appre hensions and requirements. He also, when He came, in his predictions as well as in his other in- structions, taught as his hearers were able to bear them. And even we are under the same tutelage with respect t ) the mysteries of the New Jeru- salem ; for we iead that it has its Temple too (Rev. vii. 15), and yet we are told that it has no Temple (Rev. xxi. 22) ; and the announcement of the final and complete fulfillment of our proph- ecy (Rev. xxi. 24-26) is little more than a repeti- tion of the prophecy itself in a material form iden- tically the same. some of their Commentators (e. g-., Isaaki, Abarbanel) in- terpret the passage as predicting a future Temple. ?on) par- ing Ezek. xliii. etc., yet as this view is in plain contradic- tion of the Prophets announcement of speedy fu. fillmen^ others are, in consistency, driven to renounce the idea of any true fulfillment whatever. 20 rGAI. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 1. The only hope of the Church of God lies in his favor. If at any time it is weak and languish- ing, its sad condition is directly due to the with- drawal of God's presence. But his attitude to- wards his people is not the result of caprice or of change of purpose. He is bound to them by a Covenant (ver. 5) to which He ever remains faith- ful. It is their unfaithfulness that banishes Him from among them, and a return to obedience that restores his favor and help. The latter result is as assured as the former (comp. vers. 4, 5, with i. 12, 13). These truths furnish an antidote to despond- ency, and a ground of confidence as well as a mo- tive to renewed consecration. 2. The World is the tributary, and the minister of the Church. All revolutions, political, social, or moral, that affect the nations, are harbingers and [>reparations of that spiritual and inward but no ess powerful influence which is to impel them within the boundaries of the kingdom of Christ. And the treasures of the nations, all that is de- sirable and valuable in the achievements of human labor, all the accumulated wisdom and knowledge of the ages, and all that is pure and lofty in human motives and purposes, are the offerings which the world has brought, or is yet to bring to the Church — " the glory and honor of the Gen- tiles " presented in the courts of Zion ( Rev. xxi. 26). 3. The development and progress of the Church of God are not marked by an increase of external splendor. Its true glory does not consist in the magnificence of its houses of worship, or in the pomp and impressiveness of its ceremonies and rituals. The First Temple was distinguished by these outward attractions ; but the Second Temple in which they were so inferior, is by the Prophet contrasted with the former, and chosen as the fit representative, nay even as the partial realization of the promised Church of Christ. Christians know, as the pious worshippers in the second Temple were taught, that the glory of the Church is derived from the purity of her worship, the de- votion of her ever-increasing members, and the abiding presence of God through his Spirit. Even the Shekinah was wanting in the second Temple ; but the faithful worshippers there, like those who now in every nation worship God in spirit and in truth, could rejoice that they did not need among them his visible glory, while his presence was felt in their hearts. HOMILKTIOAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 3 (comp. with ver. 9). Long life is a bless- ing and happiness to a servant of God, if at its close he is permitted to behold the revival of God's kingdom and increasing signs of its coming glory. Vers. 4, 5. God's people should dwell much upon their past history. They will thus find that whatever checks and distresses they have experi- enced were due to their own unfaithfulness, and that God never failed to fulfill his part in the Covenant, whether He chastened or blessed. In the adversities of the present they may be assured that their true hope lies in the presence and power of the Spirit, who dwells with them according as they fulfill their part in the Covenant. Calvin : God is present with his own in vari- ous ways ; but He especially shows that He is present* when, by his Spirit, He confirms weak minds. Vers. 6, 7. In the midst of the changes, polit- ical, social, and moral, that affect the nations, by what methods may God's people best seek to at- tract them with their priceless treasures within the Church of Christ ? Henry : The shaking of the nations is often in order to the settling of the Church and the estab- lishing of the things that cannot be shaken. Moore : The kingdoms of the world are but the scaffolding for God's spiritual Temple, to be thrown down when their purpose is accomplished. — The uncertainty and transitoriness of all that is earthly should lead men to seek repose in the ever- lasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. — The glory of the New Testament dispensation is the conversion of the heathen. Ver. 8. Since the earth and its fullness are the Lord's, his people need never fear either that they will be left destitute, or that the " riches of the Gentiles " will not be converted to the use of his Church. Henry : Every penny bears God's superscrip- tion as well as Caesar's. Moore : The comparative poverty of the Church is not because God cannot bestow riches upon her, but because there are better blessings than wealth that are often incompatible with its possession. Ver. 9. Calvin : Though they should gather the treasures of a thousand worlds into one mass, such a glory would still be perishable. Moore : The New Testament in all its out- ward lowliness has a glory in its possession of a completed salvation, far above all the outward magnificence of the Mosaic dispensation. — The kingdom of Christ makes peace between God and man, and in its ultimate results will make peace between man and man, and destroy all that pro- duces discord and confusion, war and bloodshed on the earth. Pressel : Every house of God is a place where God gives peace, and every place of peace is also a house of God. — On the whole discourse : The glory of God's kingdom : (1.) Its conditions — the faithfulness of his people to all their covenant obligations and duties, their obedience, their faith, and their cour- age, securing his favor and help. (2.) Its nature — the constant reception of increasing multitudes of " Gentiles " with their " treasures " of devotion and service; and the abiding presence of God'i Spirit diffusing peace and joy. CHAPTER II. 10-19. 21 FOURTH ADDRESS. Past Calamities accounted for ; and Immediate Prosperity announced. Chapter II. 10-19. 10 On the twenty-fourth (day) of the ninth (month) in the second year of Darius, 11 there was a word of Jehovah by the hand of Haggai the Prophet, saying: Thus 12 saith Jehovah of Hosts : Ask, I pray you, the Priests 1 for instruction, saying : If 2 a man shall bear holy flesh in the lappet of his garment, and touch with his lappet upon bread, or upon pottage, or upon wine, or upon oil, or upon any food, shall it 13 become holy ; and the Priests answered and said : No. And Haggai said: If one denied 3 through a (dead) person touch any of these, snail it be unclean ; and the 14 Priests answered and said: It shall be unclean. Then Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith Jehovah, and so is every work of their hands ; and whatever they offer there [at the altar] is unclean. 15 And now, I pray you direct your heart from this day and backward, before the 16 placing of stone upon stone in the house of Jehovah. Since such things were, 4 one has been going 5 to a heap of sheaves of fifty (measures), and there were (but) ten ; he has been going to the wine-vat to draw out fifty pails, and there were (but) 17 twenty. I have smitten you with blight, and with mildew, and with hail — all the 18 works 6 of your hands; yet ye (returned) 7 not to me, saith Jehovah. Direct, I pray you, your hearts from this day and backward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth (month), to the day on which the Temple of Jehovah was founded ; direct 19 your heart. Is the grain yet in the barn ? And as to the vine and the fig tree, and the pomegranate and olive tree, they have not borne. 8 From this day I will bless. 9 TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 Ver. 11. — D s 3n3n"J"1M U the direct and miFI the indirect object. 3 Ver. 12. — This verse contains a sentence virtually conditional, of which H7^T|? s n to the apodosto, and all that pre- cedes the protasis. But as H is properly an interjection the strict translation would be : Behold, let any one bear, etc Some of the articles of food here mentioned are made definite, being considered severally as forming a distinct class Bee Green, § 24.5 737J3 in such a connection of course means backward. The time when the work was resumed is specified here, because it was the turning-point in their fortunes. Their con- dition before that event is recalled for their con- templation that they might connect their distress then suffered with their unfaithfulness ; and the brief period succeeding their return to obedience is included because they could not so soon recover from their embarrassments, no harvest having yet intervened. C^IT5^ therefore serves a twofold purpose : ?E (from) denotes that the retrospect should properly begin with the resumption of the work, and ETJtrf (before) indicates the direction in which the survey should extend. That it is the resumption of building that is referred to, and not the first feeble efforts of the returning exiles, is plain from the circumstances of the people to be described and the lesson to be enforced. Ver. 15. Since such things were .... and there were (but) twenty. OHVno, literally: from these things being (so). This means, from the time when affairs began to be in the condition referra 1 to. It is clear that 1^? need not have the same reference here as in ver. 15, where it points backward. Here the people are not commanded to take a review of the past; the Prophet is now describing a certain state of affairs consequent upon their unfaithfulness. There it was a retro- spect ; here it is a view of cause and effect. The force of the verse is precisely that of ch. i. 9. The harvests did not fulfill expectation. Their actual yield did not even correspond to the appearance of the crops when gathered in. A heap of sheaves which seemed to contain twenty measures (it is best to supply HStP, as E. V. does), was, when threshed, found to contain but ten. A quantity of grapes usually affording fifty purahs yields only twenty. 2p^ is applied either to the press itself, or to the vat beneath into which the liquor flows. Here the latter is meant ; after pressing, they went to draw from it, expecting the usual proportion of wine, FT^IS, which ia "s. lxiii. 8 means a CHAPTER II. 10-19. 23 wine-press, must be used here of the vessel which was ordinarilv employed to draw up the wine from the lower receptacle. It naturally came to be adopted as a convenient measure for such pur- poses, much in the same way as our " bucket " is sometimes referred to as a measure. The LXX. translating fierpriT^s make it = H2 (a bath). Such an ellipsis as E. V. assumes to exist in the orig- inal is incredible. Ver. 17. I have smitten you with blight . . . saith Jehovah. The immediate cause of the shortness and inferior quality of the crops is now presented. On the connection between the first and second clauses, see Grammatical note. The people themselves are said to have been smitten, because the calamities specified fell upon their crops, the labor of their hands (comp. Virgil's boumque labores), thus disappointing their nearest hopes. Compare, as exactly analogous, ch. i. 10, 11. These passages further show that there is no need of rendering with E. V. : in all the labor of your hands. The last clause is difficult. Most take D3HS as a nominative, and supply DJjOQ? (ye have not returned) after Amos iv. 9, the former and latter parts of which passage present a resem- blance to our verse probably fortuitous. But the cases in which HS accompanies a nominative are so rare that such a construction is not to be as- sumed except under exegetical distress. More admissible is the translation of the Vulgate, Ita- la, Umbreit, et al. : et non fuit in vobis qui reverter- etur. To obtain this *^??£? is supplied, and C5^W read. It ought not to be objected with Hitzig and Koehler, that HK does not mean among or in, but only beside or with ; for 2 Kings ix. 25 furnishes nn unmistakable instance of the former sense. The extent of the change involved in the Text is a more valid objection. It is better, with Maurer, Hitzig, Ewald, and Keil, to construe according to the principle laid down by Ewald (§ 262 b), that V^ 1 (properly the construct of 1?M), being usually fol- lowed by a verbal suffix, because containing a ver- bal conception (= there is not), here takes the sign of the object according to the construction after most verbs. We therefore render : but ye were not towards me, i. e., ye did not return to me. Hos. iii. 3, 2 Kings vi. 11, afford examples of such con- structions. Ver. 18. Direct, I beseech you, your heart . direct your heart. This verse has received most diverse and in some instances most extraor- dinary interpretations. The main difficulty arises from the peculiar use of ]^?7- Most of the Eng- lish expositors adopt the rendering of E. V. with- out explanation, or (as Newcome) supply " and " instead of " even " before " from," in order to make the contradiction involved appear slighter. Fausset thinks that the time is to be measured backward from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, and forward from the founding of the Tem- ple, or that the same adverb, i~l^V ~» can betaken in different senses when connected with the same verb, which is absurd. Indeed, it would seem very improbable that i~w37J2 here should be employed in a sense different from that in which it occurs in ver. 15, as Eichhorn, Hitzig, Koehler, et al. as- sume that it must, in making it refer to the future. If now we could suppose, with the authors last named, and Pressel, that the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month was the day on which the foun- dation was laid, all difficulty would vanish. The people would again be directed to review their con- dition, and to contrast i: with the blessings which they would henceforth receive, as described in the next verse. But the objections to this are insu- perable : (1) The Temple was founded in the sec- ond year of Cyrus, fifteen years before (Ezra iii. 10) ; and if we compare Ezra iv. 4 with iv. 23, 24. we shall see that the work upon it was continued, however feebly, until within two years of the pres- ent prophecy, so that the foundation could not have fallen into decay. (2) Ch. ii. 3 implies that the new structure had then become somewhat ad- vanced. If it were absolutely necessary to regard '{us as = yo (from), we should be driven to con- clude that the text, as it now stands, is corrupt. But the analogy of such words as pirH£)7 (to a distance) V'lnQ'^S (to the outside), shows that the meaning to or until 1 is not impossible. So Rosenmiiller, Maurer, Ewald, Moore, et al., have understood it. This, it must be confessed, is a somewhat precarious resort ; but it seems the only one at all defensible. The sense thus obtained for the whole verse is appropriate. In order to make the blessings to be announced in ver. 19 appear in strong contrast to the distress pictured in vers. 16, 17, the Prophet repeats the injunction of ver. 15, but with a longer range of retrospect. The whole period back to the time when the foundation of the Temple was laid in the reign of Cyrus was one of more or less distress on account of the unfaithful- ness of the people ; for between that time and the present all the efforts that they had made to com- plete the work were spasmodic and feeble. Ver. 19. Is the grain yet in the barn ... I will bless. The parallelism and the connection show that 37 j'JH is to be taken not in the sense oi corn for sowing, but of corn already raised. The interrogation is equal to a strong negation. ^1? probably means here quoad, as to, in which sense it is of frequent occurrence. Maurer prefers to ren- der : ad hue, as yet, a sense undeniable in Job i. 1 8 ; but there is no necessity of assuming such a rare usage here. The distress before described is brought nearer to the feelings of the people by the reminder that it was still present. They could then better appreciate the worth of the coming relief. From this day, must be taken in a somewhat loose sense, as denoting the beginning of that period of bless- ing which was to reward the obedience and devo- tion now displayed by the people. There is thus seen to be no inconsistency between the promise and the conditions described in ver. 15. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 1. The ceremonial institutes of the ancient Law were designed to illustrate man's relations to God as being under his favor or under his displeasure. The conditions and treatment of uncleanness, while setting forth most vividly the loathsomeness and defilement of sin, exhibited as clearly the ef- fects of God's anger against it, which was shown to extend to all the sinner's experience, removing 1 ^u is not therefore pleonastic ; it still marks the lim- its of the period specified, separating it from the precedlnj according to its original force. 24 HAGGAI. him beyond the reach of covenant mercies and blessings. While the divine displeasure was man- ifested towards an individual or a nation, no amount of outward religious observances could appease it, just as no frequency of contact with legally consecrated offerings could impart sacred- ness to any other object. 2. A return to God by his people under either Covenant has always been followed immediately by the bestowal of blessings peculiar to the Cov- enant. In Old Testament times a fullness of ex- ternal mercies was chiefly expected and received. But before these blessings could, in the ordinary course of providence, be vouchsafed, spiritual and higher blessings were invariably imparted (see ver. 19) — the assurance of God's favor, the abiding presence and assistance of his Spirit. The New Covenant, while it has modified in form many of the provisions and conditions of the Old, is not superior to it in the certainty of its fulfillment ; and nothing is better adapted to revive and strengthen our trust in God's promises than a fre- quent recurrence to his dealings towards his an- cient people. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Vera. 12-14. Our inward character, and not our privileges or associations or outward conduct, wil' determine God's attitude toward us. Calvin : Whoever intrudes external ceremo- nies on God, in order to pacify Him, trifles with Him most childishly. The fountain of good works is integrity of heart, and the purpose to obey God and consecrate the life to Him. — Whatever we touch is polluted by us, unless there be purity of heart to sanctify our works. Grotius : There are many ways of vice, but only one of virtue, and that a difficult one. Fausset : Those who are unclean before God on account of " dead works," thereby render un- clean all their services. Vers. 15-17. Matthew Henry: When we take no care of God's interests we cannot expect that He will take care of ours. Moore : Men are inclined to assign any other cause for their sufferings than their sins, yet this is usually the true cause. — Disappointment of our hopes on earth should make us lift our eyes to heaven to learn the reason. — Affliction will harden the heart if it be not referred to God as its author. Vers. 18, 19. Moore : Pondering over the past is often the best way of providing for the fu- ture. Fausset : From the moment we unreservedly yield ourselves up to God, we may confidently cal- culate on his blessing. FIFTH ADDRESS. Reservation of the People in the Convulsions that should destroy the surrounding Nations. Chapter II. 20-23. 20 21 22 23 And there was a word of Jehovah a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth (day) of the month, saying : Speak to Zerubbabel, Governor of Judah, saying : I will be shaking 1 the heavens and the earth ; And I will overturn the throne of the kingdoms, and will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and will overthrow the chariot and its riders, and the horses and their riders shall sink down, each by the sword of his brother. In that day, saith Jehovah of Hosts I will take thee, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, my servant, saith Jehovah, and will place thee as a signet, for thee have I chosen, saith Jehovah of Hosts. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. 1 Vers. 21,22. — The force and construction of tZ^V^XS in connection with the following preterites, are the saint M those of the same word in ver. 6 : I shall be shaking (a participle being indefinite as to time) and (shall) have over- turned. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. In order to supply all that was now needed to strengthen and encourage his people, the Prophet delivers, on the same day, a second message, pre- dicting their safety amidst the upheavals of the Gen- tile world, and assuring them of God's guardian care over their rulers as a pledge of this promise. Vers. 20-22. And there was a word of Jeho- vah .... each by the sword of his brother. The shaking of the heavens and the earth here predicted coincides to some extent with that fore- told in vers. 6 7. To establish the distinction that does exist, we have only to assume that the com- motions to be excited among the Gentiles to carry out God's purposes with respect to the world are to be understood as limited by the results to be ac- complished. In the passage referred to, as we have seen, the ultimate submission and worship of the world is announced ; here we are told of nothing beyond the temporal security of the Jews (for how long a period is not indicated) amidst the mutual destruction of other nationalities. It is most proh CHAPTER II. 20-23. 25 *ble that the reference is to wars in which those I countries were involved, with which Israel had) been brought into contact, — Babylon (whose cap- tare and cruel treatment by Darius Hystaspes, after rebellion against him, occurred soon after the de- livery of this prophecy) ; Persia in its conflicts with Scythia, etc., and especially with Greece; Syria in" its protracted wars with Egypt. These limitations seem to be correct: (1) because the prophecy does not say that the Jews would be pre- served in contending against other nations, but only during the mutual contentions of the latter ; (2) because we And that the Jews did actually suc- cumb to the power of the Gentiles. The throne of the kingdoms here means their government, that which binds men together &,s a nation (comp. Dan. vii. 27). This is based upon the strength of the kingdoms, which is shattered by the de- struction of their armies. Every man by the sword of his brother, -asserts in a general way that the nations in their wars would become self- destructive as well as mutually destructive. Ver. 23. In that day. This expression denotes, according to its usual prophetic indefiniteness, not the period introduced by the commotions just pre- dicted, — a supposition tenable only by those who assume that by Zerubbabel the Messiah is directly intended, — but the period, of whatever duration it should be, during which the commotions should continue. If the verses just preceding had alluded to any remote consequences of the conflicts be- tween the nations, the former explanation would be admissible. I will place thee as a signet-ring. The signet-ring was held very precious, and worn constantly by its oriental possessor; comp. Song of Sol. viii. 6 ; Jer. xxii. 24. The announcement thus conveyed, that during these convulsions Jeho- vah, who had chosen Zerubbabel as his servant, would take him under his peculiar and special care, is probably to be accounted for and explained in the following way : The Jews, although it was now several years since they had returned from exile, had been constituted a theocratic nation, and rec- ognized as such by God only through the erection of the Temple, which was in fact the condition of their national existence. In the midst of the con- vulsions that were to shake the surrounding na- tions, they would naturally feel themselves inse- cure. To anticipate and allay this anxiety, it was now announced to them that their government and institutions would be preserved. For Zerubbabel, though appointed by the Persian monarch who was temporarily to be their ruler, was chosen by Jehovah also as the representative of the throne and family (Luke iii. 27) of David, which was to stand secure, while the kingdoms of the earth should fall. In this promise Zerubbabel is fitly taken to represent all the rulers of the Jews during the period within the range of the prophecy. He was the first and the greatest of their post-exilic rulers. In a theocratic relation he was the restorer of the dynasty of David. What was promised to him we may regard as equally promised to all the faithful rulers of Judaea who should come after him. They also would be chosen of God and the objects of his watchful care, as the guardians of his people. This we regard as the direct occasion of the promise. It is probable, however, that these words were addressed to Zerubbabel (comp. Zech. iv. 6-10), partly to give him encouragement in his direction and supervision of the work upon the Temple, and in his efforts to mould and control the little community at such a critical period of ts history. This discourse has been regarded by most ortho- dox commentators as Messianic in the strict sense, namely, as gaining its full and only adequate ap- plication when understood of the Messiah and his kingdom. It is clear, however, from the foregoing exposition, that it is Messianic only in so far as the progress and prosperity of God's people under the Old Covenant prefigured the triumph of the Redeemer's reign. It may be urged against this restriction that the address is prefaced (ver. 21 ) by an expression similar to that by which the MeSsi- anic promises in vers. 6-9 were introduced. There is this distinction, however, among others, between the two predictions. In the former the discourse relates to the Temple as representing the Church of God in its perpetual and ever-increasing glory and as the refuge of all nations ; in the latter we have no indication of a reference to anything be- yond the preservation of the theocracy so long as it should suit the divine purposes. The shaking of the heavens and the earth illustrates in both cases the violent commotions among the Gentiles through the divine power, but the result in the one was to be their ultimate conversion, in the other their destruction. Among Anglo-American com- mentators Henderson and Moore hold to the re stricted and indirect Messianic sense. DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL. 1. The destinies of nations and their rulers an determined by their relations to the kingdom of God. When they subserve its advancement, they are not merely preserved by Him, but even become the objects of his special care (comp., e. g., Is. xlv. 1-6). When they cease to do so they are shorn of their strength and fall. This is the highest and clearest lesson of history, wriUe "> s plainly upon her records, as upon the pages of the Old Cove- nant. 2. The Jewish nation formed no exception to this divine law. The only respect in which it dif fered from other nations in this regard, was that it contained for a time the Church of God. This was its glory and its high trust. Its rulers, when faithful to the interests of God's kingdom com- mitted to their keeping, were, as his chosen minis- ters, precious in his sight, and the objects of his peculiar care and never-failing help. Through the administration of such the nation prospered. And we know as well that it was through the unfaith- fulness of the leaders of the Jewish people, that God's favor was withdrawn from the n and they were blotted out from among the nati ras. HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL. Ver. 22. Do righteousness and tmth control our national life 1 If they do not we may expect national dissolution; perhaps the recurrence of fratricidal war. , Ver. 23. Are our rulers controlled in their every act by a regard for righteousness and truth « If they are, they will be guarded and guided by God for the nation's prosperity and true glory. If they are not, let them remember the denunciations of the prophets and of Christ himself against the un- faithful leaders of the Jews. Moore : The best protection for any nation, the surest guarantee for its political existence, ii a living, working Church in its midst. Pressel : Even though we are not royal signet rings, God, but only little rings on tky eternal hand, how safely are we guarded ! Date Due