Haggai 2:5

2:5 ‘Do not fear, because I made a promise to your ancestors when they left Egypt, and my spirit ¹  even now testifies to you.’ ² 

Haggai 1:9

1:9 ‘You expected a large harvest, but instead ³  there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. ⁴  Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! ⁵ 

Haggai 1:11-12

1:11 Moreover, I have called for a drought that will affect the fields, the hill country, the grain, new wine, fresh olive oil, and everything that grows from the ground; it also will harm people, animals, and everything they produce.’” ⁶ 

The Response of the People

1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, ⁷  along with the whole remnant of the people, ⁸  obeyed ⁹  the Lord their God. They responded favorably to the message of the prophet Haggai, who spoke just as the Lord their God had instructed him, ¹⁰  and the people began to respect the Lord. ¹¹ 

Haggai 2:3

2:3 ‘Who among you survivors saw the former splendor of this temple? ¹²  How does it look to you now? Isn’t it nothing by comparison?

Haggai 2:14

2:14 Then Haggai responded, “‘The people of this nation are unclean in my sight,’ ¹³  says the Lord. ‘And so is all their effort; everything they offer is also unclean. ¹⁴ 

Haggai 2:18

2:18 ‘Think carefully about the past: ¹⁵  from today, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, ¹⁶  to the day work on the temple of the Lord was resumed, ¹⁷  think about it. ¹⁸ 

¹ sn My spirit. It is theologically anachronistic to understand “spirit” here in the NT sense as a reference to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity; nevertheless during this postexilic period the conceptual groundwork was being laid for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit later revealed in the NT.

² tc 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 זֹאת הַבְּרִית (zo’t habbÿrit, “this is the covenant”) at the beginning of the verse. The proposed emendation makes excellent sense and is expected with the verb כָּרַת (karat, “cut” or “make” a covenant), but it has no textual support. Most English versions (including the present translation) therefore follow the MT here.

³ tn Heb “look!” (הִנֵּה, hinneh). The term, an interjection, draws attention to the point being made.

⁴ tn Heb “I blew it away” (so NRSV, TEV, NLT). The imagery here suggests that human achievements are so fragile and temporal that a mere breath from God can destroy them (see Ezek 22:20, 21; and Isa 40:7 with נָשַׁב, nashav).

⁵ tn Heb “and each of you runs to his own house”; NIV “is busy with”; TEV “is busy working on”; NCV “work hard for.”

⁵ tn Heb “all the labor of hands” (similar KJV, NASB, NIV); cf. NAB “all that is produced by hand.”

⁷ tn Many English versions have “Joshua [the] son of Jehozadak, the high priest,” but this is subject to misunderstanding. See the note on the name “Jehozadak” at the end of v. 1.

⁸ tn Heb “all the remnant of the people.” The Hebrew phrase שְׁאֵרִית הָעָם (shÿ’erit ha’am) in this postexilic context is used as a technical term 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). Cf. TEV “all the people who had returned from the exile in Babylonia.”

⁹ tn Heb “heard the voice of”; NAB “listened to the voice of.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “and according to the words of Haggai the prophet just as the Lord their God sent him.” Some English versions (e.g., NAB, NIV, NCV) take the last clause as causal: “because the Lord their God had sent him.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and the people feared from before the Lord”; NASB “showed reverence for the Lord.”

⁹ tn Heb “this house in its earlier splendor”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “in its former glory.”

¹¹ tn Heb “so this people, and so this nation before me.” In this context “people” and “nation” refer to the same set of individuals; the repetition is emphatic. Cf. CEV “this entire nation.”

¹² sn The point here is that the Jews cannot be made holy by unholy fellowship with their pagan neighbors; instead, they and their worship will become corrupted by such associations.

¹³ tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15.

¹⁴ sn 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.

¹⁵ sn 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 accords with the food scarcities of that time already detailed in Hag 1:10-11.

¹⁶ tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15 and at the beginning of this verse.