Haggai 1:7

The Instruction of the People

1:7 “Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says: ‘Pay close attention to these things also. ¹ 

Haggai 1:5

1:5 Here then is what the Lord who rules over all says: ‘Think carefully about what you are doing. ² 

Haggai 2:18

2:18 ‘Think carefully about the past: ³  from today, the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, ⁴  to the day work on the temple of the Lord was resumed, ⁵  think about it. ⁶ 

Haggai 2:15

2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, ⁷  before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. ⁸ 

[1:7]  ¹ tn Heb “Set your heart upon your ways”; see v. 5.

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “Set your heart upon your ways” (see 2:15, 18); traditionally “Consider your ways” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[2:18]  ³ tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15.

[2:18]  ⁴ 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.

[2:18]  ⁵ 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.

[2:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “set your heart.” A similar expression occurs in v. 15 and at the beginning of this verse.

[2:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “and now set your heart from this day and upward.” The juxtaposition of מָעְלָה (ma’lah, “upward”) with the following מִטֶּרֶם (mitterem, “before”) demands a look to the past. Cf. ASV “consider from this day and backward.”

[2:15]  ⁵ sn Before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple is best taken as referring to the laying of the present temple’s foundation, sixteen years earlier (536 b.c.; see Ezra 3:8). Cf. NCV “before you started laying stones”; TEV “before you started to rebuild”; NLT “before you began to lay (started laying CEV) the foundation.”