1
sn (1:1) The first day of the sixth month was Elul 1 by the Jewish calendar; August 29, 520 B.C. by the modern (Julian) calendar.
2sn (1:1) King Darius is the Persian king Darius Hystaspes who ruled from 522-486 B.C.
3tn (1:1) Heb "the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet" (yG~j^-dy~B=, B=y~d-j^GG~y). This suggests that the prophet is only an instrument of the LORD who is, indeed, the true author (see 1:3; 2:1; Mal 1:1).
4tn (1:1) The typical translation "Joshua (the) son of Jehozadak, the high priest" can be understood to mean that Jehozadak was high priest. However, Zech 3:1, 8 clearly indicates that Joshua was high priest (see also Ezra 5:1-2). The same potential misunderstanding occurs in Hag 1:12, 14 and 2:2, and the same solution has been employed in the translation.
5sn (1:2) The epithet sovereign LORD is one of Haggai's favorite divine titles (see 1:5, 7, 9, 14; 2:4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 23). This name (y+hw´h x=b*aot, "Yahweh sabaoth"), traditionally translated "LORD of hosts," emphasizes the majestic sovereignty of the Lord, an especially important concept in the post-exilic world of great human empires and rulers. For a thorough study of the divine title, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 123-57.
6tn (1:2) Heb "the time has not come, the time for the house of the LORD to be built."
7tn (1:3) Heb "and the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying."
8sn (1:4) Paneled houses. Paneling is otherwise known in the OT only in connection with the temple (1 Kgs 6:9) and the royal palace (2 Kgs 7:3, 7). The impropriety of the people living in such lavish accommodations while the temple lay unfinished is striking.
9tn (1:4) Heb "Is it time for you, [yes] you, to live in paneled houses, while this house is in ruins?"
10tn (1:5) Heb "Set your heart upon your ways" (see 2:15, 18).
11tn (1:6) Some translate "pockets," but the Hebrew word rorx= (x=ror) refers to a bag or pouch (purse) of money (BDB 865). Because coinage was invented by the Persians and was thus in use in Haggai's day, this likely is a money bag (or purse) rather than pouches or pockets in the clothing.
12tn (1:7) Heb "Set your heart upon your ways"; see v. 5.
13tn (1:8) Heb "and build."
14sn (1:8) The temple was built primarily of stone, so the timber here refers to interior paneling (see v. 4) and perhaps to scaffolding (see Ezra 5:8; 6:4).
15tn (1:8) The Hebrew verb d´b=K*a# appears to be a defectively written cohortative ("that I may be glorified"). The cohortatives (note that the preceding hx#r+a#, "I will be pleased," may also be taken as cohortative) indicate purpose/result following the imperatives of v. 8a ("go up," "bring back," "build").
16tn (1:9) Heb "look!" (hN}h!, h!N}h). The word draws attention to the point being made.
17tn (1:9) Heb "I blew it away." The imagery here teaches that man's achievements are so fragile and temporal that a mere breath from God can destroy them (see Ezek 22:20, 21; and [with bv^n´] Isa 40:7).
18tn (1:10) The Hebrew text adds "over you," but this is redundant in contemporary English and has not been translated.
19sn (1:10) This linkage of human sin to natural disaster is reminiscent of the curse brought upon the earth by Adam's disobedience (Gen 3:17-19; see Rom 8:20-22).
20tn (1:11) Heb "all the labor of hands."
21tn (1:12) Typically "Joshua [the] son of Jehozadak, the high priest." See the note on the name "Jehozadak" at the end of v. 1.
22tn (1:12) Heb "all the remnant of the people." The Hebrew phrase <u*h* tyr]a@v= (v=a@r!t h*u*<) in this post-exilic context is used technically to refer to the returned remnant (see Ezra 9:14; Isa 10:20-22; 11:11, 16; Jer 23:3; 31:7; and many other passages).
23tn (1:12) Heb "heard the voice of."
24tn (1:12) Heb "and according to the words of Haggai the prophet just as the LORD their God sent him."
25tn (1:12) Heb "and the people feared from before the LORD."
26tn (1:13) Heb "Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, said by the message of the LORD to the people." The Hebrew is highly repetitive; in keeping with contemporary English style the translation is less repetitious.
27sn (1:14) God initiated the rebuilding by providing the people with motivation and ability.
28tn (1:14) Heb "stirred up." Only one verb appears in the Hebrew text, but the translation "energized and encouraged" brings out its sense in this context.
29tn (1:14) Heb "the spirit of Zerubbabel."
30tn (1:14) Heb "the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest." For the reason behind the translation's change in word order in this phrase, see the note on the name "Jehozadak" at the end of v. 1.
31tn (1:14) Heb "and the spirit of all the remnant of the people."
32sn (1:15) The twenty-fourth day of the sixth month of King Darius's second year. The date was September 21, 520 B.C., twenty-three days after the original command by Haggai to rebuild (1:1). Perhaps the reason for the delay was the pressing need to bring in the late summer harvest.
1tn (2:1) Heb "In the seventh [month], on the twenty-first day of the month."
sn (2:1) The seventh month was the month Tishri, in the modern calendar October 17, 520 B.C. The twenty-first day of Tishri marked the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Num 29:32-34). It also coincided with the date 440 years earlier (960 B.C.) when Solomon finished building his temple (1 Kgs 6:38; 8:2).
2tc (2:1) Heb "the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying." The MT has dy~B= (B=y~d, "by the hand of" = "through," as in 1:1, 3) ; the Murabba'at Dead Sea text reads la# (a@l, "to"), perhaps because the following command is given to the prophet.
3tn (2:2) Heb "say to."
4tn (2:2) Typically "Joshua (the) son of Jehozadak (the) high priest." For the reason behind the translation's change in word order here, see the note on the name "Jehozadak" at the end of 1:1.
5tn (2:2) Heb "the remnant of the people."
6tn (2:3) Heb "this house in its earlier splendor."
sn (2:3) Solomon's temple was demolished in 586 B.C., 66 years prior to Haggai's time. There surely would have been some old people who remembered the former splendor of that magnificent structure and who lamented the contrast to the little temple they were building (see Ezra 3:8-13).
7tn (2:4) The Hebrew text repeats the verb "take heart." Although emphatic, the repetition is not in keeping with contemporary English style and has not been translated.
8tn (2:4) Heb "the people of the land" (Jr\a*h* <u^); this is a technical term referring to free citizens as opposed to slaves.
9sn (2:5) My spirit. It is theologically premature to understand "spirit" here as the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity; nevertheless in this postexilic period the conceptual groundwork was being laid for the NT doctrine of the Holy Spirit.
10tc (2:5) The MT of v. 5 reads "with the word which I cut with you when you went out from Egypt and my spirit [which] stands in your midst, do not fear." BHS proposes emending "with the word" to tyr]B=h^ taz{ ("this is the covenant [which I made with you]") at the beginning of the verse. The proposed emendation makes excellent sense, is expected with the verb tr~K* ("cut" or "make" a covenant), but has no textual support.
11tc (2:6) The difficult MT reading ayh! Fx^m= tj^a^ dou ("yet once, it is little") appears as "yet once" in the LXX, omitting the last two Hebrew words. However, the point being made is that the anticipated action is imminent, thus the emphasis of the repetition.
12tn (2:6) Or "the heavens." The same Hebrew word, <y]m^v* (v*m^y!<), may be translated "sky" or "heavens" depending on the context. Here the other three elements (earth, sea, dry ground) suggest "sky" is in view in this context.
13tn (2:7) Heb "all the nations."
14tn (2:7) Though the subject here is singular (hD~m=h#, "desire"), the preceding plural predicate mandates a collective subject, "desired (things)" or, better, an emendation to a plural form, td)m%j&, "desirable [things]." This has no direct reference to the coming of the Messiah.
15tn (2:9) Heb "greater will be the latter splendor of this house than the former."
16tn (2:9) There is an implicit play on words in the clause "in this place [Jerusalem] I will give peace" (in <y]l^v*Wry+ there will be <olv*).
17sn (2:10) The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of Darius's second year was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520 B.C.
18tn (2:10) Heb "the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, saying."
19tn (2:11) Heb "Ask the priests a torah, saying."
20sn (2:12) This is probably not an appeal to the Torah (the Pentateuch) as such but to a priestly ruling, what was known in post-biblical Judaism as a P=s^q D'n. There is, however, a Mosaic law that provides the basis for the priestly ruling (Lev 6:27).
21tn (2:13) Heb "unclean of a person," a euphemism for "unclean because of a dead person" (tm@ vp#n\ am@f=); see Lev 21:11; Num 6:6.
22tn (2:14) Heb "so this people, and so this nation before me."
23sn (2:14) The lesson taught here is that the Jews cannot be made holy by unholy fellowship with their pagan neighbors; indeed, they and their worship will become corrupted by such associations.
24tn (2:15) Heb "and now set your heart from this day and upward." The juxtaposition of hl*u=m* ("upward") with the following <r\F#m! ("before") demands a look to the past.
25sn (2:15) Before one stone was laid on another in the LORD's temple best refers to the laying of the temple's foundation, sixteen years earlier (536 B.C.; see Ezra 3:8).
26tn (2:16) Heb "from their being," idiomatic for "from the time they were then," or "since the time."
27tn (2:17) Heb "you, all the work of your hands."
28tn (2:17) Heb "and there was not with you." The context favors the idea that the harvests were so poor that the people took care of only themselves, leaving no offering for the LORD.
29tn (2:18) Heb "set your heart."
30sn (2:18) The twenty-fourth day of the ninth month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520. See v. 10. Here the reference is to "today," the day the oracle is being delivered.
31sn (2:18) The day work...was resumed. This does not refer to the initial founding of the Jerusalem temple in 536 B.C. but to the renewal of construction three months earlier (see 1:15). This is clear from the situation described in v. 19 which is much in line with the food scarcities of that time already detailed in Hag 1:10-11.
32tn (2:18) Heb "set your heart."
33tn (2:20) Heb "and the word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai."
34sn (2:20) Again, the twenty-fourth day of the month was Kislev 24 or December 18, 520 B.C. See v. 10.
35tn (2:21) The participle here suggests an imminent undertaking of action. The overall language of the passage is eschatological, but eschatology finds its roots in the present.
36tn (2:21) See the note on the word "sky" in 2:6.
37tn (2:22) Heb "the kingdoms of the nations."
38tn (2:22) Heb "and horses and their riders will go down, a man with a sword his brother."
39sn (2:23) The expression on that day (Heb. B^Yo< h^hWa) appears as a technical eschatological term in a number of other OT passages (cf. Isa 2:11, 17, 20; 3:7, 18; Amos 8:3, 9; Hos 2:18, 21, etc.).
40sn (2:23) My servant. The collocation of "servant" and "chosen" bears strong messianic overtones. See the so-called "Servant Songs" and other messianic texts in Isaiah (Isa 41:8; 42:1; 44:4; 49:7).
41sn (2:23) The noun signet ring (Heb. jot*<), used also to describe Jehoiachin (Jer 22:24-30), refers to a ring seal worn by a king or other important person as his signature. Zerubbabel was a grandson of King Jehoiachin (1 Chr 3:17-19; Matt 1:12); God once pronounced that none of Jehoiachin's immediate descendants would rule (Jer 22:24-30), but here he reverses that judgment. Zerubbabel never ascended to such a lofty position of rulership; he is a prototype of the Messiah who would sit on David's throne.
42tn (2:23) The repetition of the formula "says the [sovereign] LORD" in v. 23 emphasizes the solemn and divine nature of the promise.