Haggai 2:11

Thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... To Haggai the prophet: ask now the priests [concerning] the law; whose business it was to understand it, and teach it, and to answer questions, and resolve doubts

In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Sacrifices without obedience (in respect to God's command to

Thus saith the Lord of hosts: the prophet comes with his double parable, or problem, but not of his own head, but in the name of the Lord of hosts. Ask; consult with, desire the solution of the following case. The priests; whose office bound them to study the law, and to answer all cases of conscience, their lips should retain knowledge, . Concerning the law; what the law saith in the case; not what the church, but what the Scripture saith.

Haggai 2:11 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests [concerning] the law, saying,Ver. 11. Ask now the priest concerning the law] For who should know the law better than the priests? And who so fit to resolve cases of conscience as they? It was their office, Leviticus 10:10-11 Deuteronomy 33:10 Malachi 2:7. See the note there. It was an evil time with God’ s people when he was put to complain, "Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent?" Isaiah 42:19. When the prophet was a fool, the spiritual man was mad for the multitude of their iniquity, and the great hatred, Hosea 9:7. Varro upbraided the Roman priests of old with their gross ignorance of many things in point of their own rites and religions; and Cicero brake a jest upon Gaius Popilius, an ignorant lawyer, at Rome. For when Popilius, being called for a witness to some controversy, answered, Nihil se scire, that he knew nothing, Cicero answered, by way of jeer, Paras fortasse te de iure interrogari, You mean (perhaps) that you know nothing in the law, which yet you profess to have skill in. What a shame was it for the Pharisees, who took upon them to be guides of the blind, teachers of babes, &c., Romans 2:19-20, to be found "blind leaders of the blind!" Matthew 15:14 So is it for divines, being asked concerning the law, or will of God, in such and such cases, not to be able to answer discreetly (νουνεχως), and intelligently, as he did Mark 12:34, as an egregie cordatus homo? distinguished wise man. But so bungler-like, and so far from the purpose, that it may well be seen that "desiring to be teachers of the law, they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm," 1 Timothy 1:7. How like the motion of a puppet, the language of a parrot, is the discourse of such unlearned or uninterested casuists! Every minister of God’ s making can truly say, "The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know to time a word to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned," Isaiah 10:4. See 1 Corinthians 12:8 Titus 1:9 Ephesians 3:4; Ephesians 3:7 1 Corinthians 2:13.

(10-19) The Fourth Utterance.—The recent season of scarcity is again accounted for and immediate blessings are announced. This address dates about two months later than its predecessor—viz., from the ninth month—scil., Chisleu (November—December), when the early rain would be looked for to water the newly-sown crops. At such a time, especially after the scarcity of the preceding season, there would naturally be great anxiety about agricultural prospects.

11. Ask now the priests concerning the law] Lit., ask of the priests law, or the law. The construction is a double accusative after the verb ask. (Comp. Isaiah 45:11.) The word law may be used here and in Malachi 2:7, without the article, in the sense of “instruction,” or “direction.” Such “law” or instruction would, however, always be derived from “the law” of God by Moses, of which the priests were the authorised interpreters. Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 17:8-13; Deuteronomy 33:10.

Ask now the priests concerning the law - The priests answer rightly, that, by the law, insulated unholiness spread further than insulated holiness.

11. Ask now the priests concerning the law — The consulting of the priests was only preparatory to the prophet’s real message; their reply was to serve him as a starting point. Literally, ask a law — ask for instruction.