Haggai 2:1

In the seventh [month],.... The month Tisri, which answers to part of September and part of October: in the one and twentieth [day] of the month; being a month, wanting three days, from the time the

In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying, The people, discouraged at the inferiority of this temple to Solomon's, are

Speak now; once again acquaint them with what I now impart for their encouragement. To Zerubbabel, & c.: see ,12. Speak now; once again acquaint them with what I now impart for their encouragement. To Zerubbabel, & c.: see ,12.

Haggai 2:1 In the seventh [month], in the one and twentieth [day] of the month, came the word of the LORD by the prophet Haggai, saying,Ver. 1. In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month] This is the preface to the fourth sermon, as some reckon it; noting the exact time when it was delivered. Came the word of the Lord] This he often inculcateth, to set forth the truth of his calling, and validity of his commission. By the prophet Haggai] Heb. by the hand of the prophet.

II. (1-9) The Third Utterance.—This utterance treats of the glory which, in a later time, is to attach itself to the sacred spot whereon the returned exiles are labouring. It was intended more especially as a message of consolation to those who remembered Solomon’s magnificent structure, and who now gazed sadly on the humble proportions of its successor.

CHAPTER II When this prophecy was uttered, about four years before the temple was finished, and sixty-eight after the former one was destroyed, it appears that some old men among the Jews were greatly dispirited on account of its being so much inferior in magnificence to that of Solomon. Compare Ezra 3:12. To raise the spirits of the people, and encourage them to proceed with the work, the prophet assures them that the glory of the second temple should be greater than that of the first, alluding perhaps to the glorious doctrines which should be preached in it by Jesus Christ and his apostles, 1-9. He then shows the people that the oblations brought by their priests could not sanctify them while they were unclean by their neglect of the temple; and to convince them that the difficult times they had experienced during that neglect proceeded from this cause, he promises fruitful seasons from that day forward, 10-19. The concluding verses contain a prediction of the mighty revolutions that should take place by the setting up of the kingdom of Christ under the type of Zerubbabel, 20-23. As the time which elapsed between the date of the prophecy and the dreadful concussion of nations is termed in Haggai 2:6, A LITTLE WHILE, the words may likewise have reference to some temporal revolutions then near, such as the commotions of Babylon in the reign of Darius, the Macedonian conquests in Persia, and the wars between the successors of Alexander; but the aspect of the prophecy is more directly to the amazing victories of the Romans, who, in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, were on the VERY EVE of their successful career, and in the lapse of a few centuries subjugated the whole habitable globe; and therefore, in a very good sense, God may be said by these people to have shaken "the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;" and thus to have prepared the way for the opening of the Gospel dispensation. See Hebrews 12:25-29. Others have referred this prophecy to the period of our Lord's second advent, to which there is no doubt it is also applicable; and when it will be in the most signal manner fulfilled. That the convulsion of the nations introducing this most stupendous event will be very great and terrible, is sufficiently plain from Isaiah xxxiv., xxxv., as well as from many other passages of holy writ. NOTES ON CHAP. II Verse 1. In the seventh month] This was a new message, and intended to prevent discouragement, and excite them to greater diligence in their work.

Ch. Haggai 2:1-9. The Second Prophecy The first prophecy had been one of severe rebuke and earnest call to duty. The second is one of encouragement to those, who having promptly obeyed the first, were in danger of being depressed and disappointed by the comparative meagreness and unworthiness of the results of their labours. When the foundations of the second Temple were laid some years before this, we read of the distress which its character and dimensions occasioned, to those of the returned captives who were old enough to remember the former Temple in its glory. The joyous shouts of the younger portion of the assembly, who rejoiced to see the sanctuary of their faith restored, blended strangely with the sad lamentations of their elders, who mourned over the departed splendour of the past. Now that a month of vigorous work was beginning to tell, and the contrast which had been apparent even in the foundations stood out in bolder relief in the rising walls of the edifice; now that many an “ancient man,” laudator temporis acti, had passed his disparaging comment on each new feature of the growing structure, and told with fond regret of the “exceeding magnifical” house (1 Chronicles 22:5) that had once been there, the danger of dejection and discouragement on the part of the people was increased. With the gracious design of counteracting this, Haggai is directed to deliver a prophecy, which stimulates them to carry on and complete their undertaking, not only by the assurance of the divine presence and favour, but by the promise that in God’s good time that house, so mean and despised, should be filled with a glory that should exceed that of Solomon’s Temple in the days of its greatest magnificence.

In the seventh month, in the one and twentieth day of the month - This was the seventh day of the feast of tabernacles, Leviticus 23:34, Leviticus 23:36, Leviticus 23:40-42. and its close.

THE GLORY OF THE NEW TEMPLE, Haggai 2:1-9.These verses contain the second address of Haggai, a message of encouragement to the builders.