Notes on Haggai
From the Original 1599 Geneva Bible Notes
Hag 1:1
1:1 In the second year of {a} Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet unto {b} Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying,
The Argument - When the time of the seventy years captivity prophesied by Jeremiah was expired, God raised up Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, to comfort the Jews, and to exhort them to the building of the temple, which was a figure of the spiritual Temple and Church of God, whose perfection and excellency depended on Christ. And because all were given to their own pleasures and benefits, he declares that that plague of famine, which God then sent among them, was a just reward for their ingratitude, in that they condemned God's honour, who had delivered them. Yet he comforts them, if they will return to the Lord, with the promise of great felicity, since the Lord will finish the work that he has begun, and send Christ whom he had promised, and by whom they would attain to perfect joy and glory.
(a) Who was the son of Histaspis and the third king of the Persians, as some think.
(b) Because the building of the temple began to cease, by reason that the people were discouraged by their enemies: and if these two notable men had need to be stirred up and admonished of their duties, what will we think of other governors, whose doings are either against God, or very cold in his cause?
Hag 1:2
1:2 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time {c} that the LORD'S house should be built.
(c) Not that they condemned the building of it, but they preferred policy and personal profit to religion, being content with small beginnings.
Hag 1:4
1:4 [Is it] time for you, O ye, to dwell in your {d} cieled houses, and this house [lie] waste?
(d) Showing that they sought not only their necessities, but their very pleasures before God's honour.
Hag 1:6
1:6 {e} Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages [to put it] into a bag with holes.
(e) Consider the plagues of God upon you for preferring your policies to his religion, and because you do not seek him above all else.
Hag 1:8
1:8 Go {f} up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and {g} I will take pleasure in it, and I will {h} be glorified, saith the LORD.
(f) Meaning, that they should leave their own benefits, and go forward in the building of God's temple, and in the setting forth of his religion.
(g) That is, I will hear your prayers according to my promise; 1Ki 8:22,29 .
(h) That is, my glory will be set forth by you.
Hag 1:9
1:9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, [it came] to little; and when ye brought [it] home, I did blow {i} upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that [is] waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
(i) And so bring it to nothing.
Hag 1:12
1:12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the {k} voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the LORD.
(k) This declares that God was the author of the doctrine, and that Haggai was but the minister, as in Ex 14:31 , Jud 7:20, Ac 15:28 .
Hag 1:14
1:14 And the LORD stirred up {l} the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
(l) Which declares that men are unable and dull to serve the Lord, neither can they obey his word or his messengers, before God reforms their hearts, and gives them new spirits; Joh 6:44 .
Hag 2:3
2:3 Who [is] left among you that saw this {a} house in her first glory? and how do ye see it now? [is it] not in your eyes in comparison of it as nothing?
(a) For the people according as had been prophesied in Isa 2:2 and Eze 41:1-26 , thought this temple should have been more excellent than Solomon's temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians, but the Prophets meant the spiritual Temple, the Church of Christ.
Hag 2:4
2:4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the LORD; and be strong, O Joshua, son of Josedech, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the LORD, and {b} work: for I [am] with you, saith the LORD of hosts:
(b) That is, go forward in building the temple.
Hag 2:6
2:6 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; {c} Yet once, it [is] a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry [land];
(c) He exhorts them to patience though they do not see as yet this temple so glorious as the Prophets had declared: for this should be accomplished in Christ, by whom all things should be renewed.
Hag 2:7
2:7 And I will shake all nations, and {d} the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
(d) Meaning Christ, whom all ought to look for and desire: or by desire he may signify all precious things, such as riches, and things like them.
Hag 2:8
2:8 The {e} silver [is] mine, and the gold [is] mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
(e) Therefore when his time comes he can make all the treasures of the world to serve his purpose: but the glory of this second Temple does not consist of material things, neither can it be built.
Hag 2:9
2:9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give {f} peace, saith the LORD of hosts.
(f) Meaning all spiritual blessings and felicity purchased by Christ; Php 4:7 .
Hag 2:12
2:12 If one bear {g} holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.
(g) That is, the flesh of the sacrifices, by which he means that a thing which of itself is good, cannot make another thing so: and therefore they ought not to justify themselves by their sacrifices and ceremonies: but contrary to this, he that is unclean and not pure of heart, does corrupt those things and make them detestable to God, which otherwise are good and godly.
Hag 2:15
2:15 And now, I pray you, consider from this {h} day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the LORD:
(h) Consider how God plagued you with famine before you began to build the temple.
Hag 2:16
2:16 {i} Since those [days] were, when [one] came to an heap of twenty [measures], there were [but] ten: when [one] came to the pressfat for to draw out fifty [vessels] out of the press, there were [but] twenty.
(i) That is, before the building was begun.
Hag 2:18
2:18 Consider now from {k} this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth [month, even] from the day that the foundation of the LORD'S temple was laid, consider [it].
(k) From the time they began to build the temple, he promises that God would bless them: and even though the fruit has not yet come forth, yet in the gathering they would have plenty.
Hag 2:19
2:19 Is the {l} seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless [you].
(l) He exhorts them to have patience, and to remain until the harvest came, and then they would see God's blessings.
Hag 2:21
2:21 Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I {m} will shake the heavens and the earth;
(m) I will make a change, and renew all things in Christ, of whom Zerubbabel is here a figure.
Hag 2:22
2:22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the {n} kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
(n) By this he shows that there will be no stop or hindrance, when God will make this wonderful restitution of his Church.
Hag 2:23
2:23 In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, the son of Shealtiel, saith the LORD, and will make thee as a {o} signet: for I have chosen thee, saith the LORD of hosts.
(o) Signifying that his dignity would be most excellent, which thing was accomplished in Christ.
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