Haggai 2:15

2:15 Now therefore reflect carefully on the recent past, ¹  before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. 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 1:9

1:9 ‘You expected a large harvest, but instead ⁷  there was little, and when you brought it home it disappeared right away. ⁸  Why?’ asks the Lord who rules over all. ‘Because my temple remains in ruins, thanks to each of you favoring his own house! ⁹ 

[2:15]  ¹ 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]  ² 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.”

[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.

[1:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “look!” (הִנֵּה, hinneh). The term, an interjection, draws attention to the point being made.

[1:9]  ⁶ 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).

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “and each of you runs to his own house”; NIV “is busy with”; TEV “is busy working on”; NCV “work hard for.”