Haggai 2:12

If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment,.... Or, "carry" it (q); from one place to another in his pockets or bags, which were in the skirts of his garments.

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

If one, any one, bear, carry away from the altar, or the priest’ s hands, holy flesh, part of the sacrifice, legally and ceremonially sanctified, or made holy by the altar on which the whole was sanctified, of which a part is supposed to be carried away in the skirt of his garment, in the lap of his garment, or in any other cloth or napkin, and this cloth touch any common thing, as bread, & c., shall that common thing by such contact become legally or ceremonially holy? The priests answered: who these priests were is not mentioned, but it is likely that there were some among the people who did by the prophet’ s persuasion go and propose the case, and they received the answer as here in the negative, for neither mediate nor yet immediate touch of holy things could make common things or unholy persons holy. If one, any one, bear, carry away from the altar, or the priest’ s hands, The priests answered: who these priests were is not mentioned, but it is likely that there were some among the people who did by the prophet’ s persuasion go and propose the case, and they received the answer as here in the negative, for neither mediate nor yet immediate touch of holy things could make common things or unholy persons holy.

Haggai 2:12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.Ver. 12. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt, &c.] Problems and parables are notable helps to the bolting out of the truth, and conviction of the gainsayers. For problems see Matthew 13:10-15; Matthew 21:25; Matthew 22:42. For parables see Judges 9:7-15, that of Jotham, of Nathan, 2 Samuel 12:1-4, of the woman of Tekoah, 2 Samuel 14:5-7, of our Saviour concerning the two brethren sent into the vineyard, the wedding of the king’ s son, the sower. And the priests answered and said, No] Roundly and readily; without hacking and hewing, without doubling and dissembling; as those perverse priests, those self-condemned hierophants, Matthew 21:27, that, against their consciences, "answered Jesus and said, We cannot tell." The wit of graceless persons will better serve them to falter and fumble, deny, or devise a thousand shifts to evade and elude the truth, than their malice will suffer them to yield to it, or profess it. This is to detain the truth in unrighteousness, Romans 1:18, as Plato, who had the knowledge of one God, yet he dared not to communicate it to the common people; and as some of the chief champions of Popery, who held justification by faith alone, but refused to say so, lest their Dagon should down, their Diana be despised. Let every spiritual man (but especially ministers) be ready, as to every good work, so to this of comparing spiritual things with spiritual, that he may judge or discern of all things, 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 2:15, according to the analogy of faith, Romans 12:6, the tenor of the Scriptures, his sure cynosura; and laying up all in his heart, Luke 2:18, he may have a treasure there of new and old, a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge too, 1 Corinthians 12:8, both as a teacher and as a pastor, to bring forth for common benefit. Antiq. An official expounder of sacred mysteries or religious ceremonies, esp. in ancient Greece; an initiating or presiding priest. ŒD

(12) Holy flesh.—The flesh of the sacrifice hallowed the person who touched it (Leviticus 6:27), but this sanctification was not conveyed to anything he might afterwards touch. On the other hand (Haggai 2:13), he who was defiled by such a pollution as contact with a dead body, conveyed defilement even to the tabernacle. (See Numbers 19:13 : “Whosoever toucheth the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth the tabernacle of the Lord.”) Even so, according to Haggai, the guilt of impiety incurred by the Jews in neglecting the Temple had tainted the labour of their hands, and caused famine. And what merit they might claim for restoring the altar-worship and keeping the prescribed feasts (Ezra 3:2-6) was not conveyed further. It was cancelled by their neglect of an equally important duty. This latter point, however, is not brought out, but is left to be supplied by the prophet’s hearers.

12. If one bear] Lit. Lo! one bears. “See, there is a man bearing—what will happen?” An emphatic Oriental way of saying, “suppose, put the case, that one bears.” So in Jeremiah 3:1 we have, “Lo! a man puts away his wife.” And in 2 Chronicles 7:13, where “if” occurs three times in A. V. the Hebrew has “lo” the first and second time, and “if” the third time. holy flesh] i.e. flesh which has been offered in sacrifice to God. Comp. Jeremiah 11:15. the skirt] Lit. the wing. So πτέρυξ, πτερύγιον are used for the skirts or flaps of a cloak or dress. meat] i.e. food, or eatables. LXX. βρῶμα. the priests answered and said, No] In Leviticus 6:27 we read of the sin-offering, “Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy.” The garment therefore in which the flesh was carried would be holy, but the holiness would not extend, so the priests ruled it, to anything which the garment touched.

12, 13. Two questions are propounded to the priests: (1) Whether or not a garment made holy through contact with holy flesh (compare Leviticus 6:27) transmits this holiness to other articles which might come in contact with it.