Haggai 2:7

And I will shake all nations,.... By changing their governors, and forms of government; which was done by the Romans, when subdued by them; and by bringing in wars among them, which produced those

And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.

I will shake all nations; which was literally fulfilled in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by the Grecians, in the civil wars and succeeding troubles among Alexander’ s successors, the growth of the Roman power by the subduing their neighbours, and their dissensions and homebred wars, all hushed by Augustus a little before Christ’ s birth. These convulsions began a little after this prophecy, and continued long, in which the Jews, under the Maccabees, had their share. The Desire of all nations shall come; Christ, the most desirable, because the most helpful to all nations, which some proselytes in all ages did come to the knowledge of, and did earnestly desire; and who was desired by all that knew their own misery. and his sufficiency to save them, who was to be the light of the Gentiles as well as the glory of his people Israel. The Messiah’ s coming (the Jews do own) is foretold in this text, yet will they not see how this yet a little while is long since past, and the true Messiah long since come. I will fill this house, which you now build, this second temple. The first had a fulness of glory in its magnificent structure, rich ornaments, and costly sacrifices, but this was a worldly glory; that which is here promised is a heavenly glory from the presence of Christ in it. He that was the brightness of his Father’ s glory, who is the glory of the church, appeareth in this second temple. With glory, of my presence, preaching, healing, and comforting, saith the Messiah, the King of glory, who entered these everlasting doors, ,8. This was before the desolation of this temple by the Romans, a demonstration that the Messiah should come whilst this second temple stood. But now the hardened Jew seeks to evade this text. Saith the Lord of hosts: this is a solemn sealing the certainty of the thing in this prophet, and Zechariah, and Malachi, who style him Lord of hosts near a hundred times. I will shake all nations; which was literally fulfilled in the overthrow of the Persian monarchy by the Grecians, in the civil wars and succeeding troubles among Alexander’ s successors, the growth of the Roman power by the subduing their neighbours, and their dissensions and homebred wars, all hushed by Augustus a little before Christ’ s birth. These convulsions began a little after this prophecy, and continued long, in which the Jews, under the Maccabees, had their share. Saith the Lord of hosts: this is a solemn sealing the certainty of the thing in this prophet, and Zechariah, and Malachi, who style him Lord of hosts near a hundred times.

Haggai 2:7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.Ver. 7. And I will shake all nations] First, by the civil wars between the Triumviri, not long before Christ’ s incarnation. Secondly, by the general tax, Luke 2:3, when all went to be taxed every one into his own city. Thirdly, by the preaching and miracles of Christ and his apostles, whereby the nations were shaken out of their sinful condition, and brought to the obedience of faith by effectual conversion. Thus a Lapide. "I will shake all nations" with wonder at so great a mystery, with joy and with newness of life, saith Sa. The gospel (saith Forbes on Revelation 14:6) hath three degrees of operation in the hearts of men. First, it falleth to men’ s ears as the sound of many waters, a confused sound, which commonly bringeth neither terror nor joy; but yet a wondering and acknowledgment of a strange force, and more than human power, Mark 1:22-23 Luke 4:32 John 7:46. This may be in the reprobate, Acts 13:41. The second effect is the voice of thunder, which brings not only wonder, but fear. This may also be in a reprobate, as Felix. The third effect, proper to the elect, is the sound of harping; while the gospel not only ravisheth with admiration, and shaketh the conscience with terror, but also filleth it with sweet peace and joy. Certain it is, that the gospel maketh a stir where it cometh, and brings an earthquake to men’ s souls, as it did to the jailer’ s, Acts 16:26-27, and Peter’ s converts, Acts 2:37 And this partly through the frowardness of our affections, and partly through the malice of Satan, fearing the ruin of his kingdom. For, as for the gospel, this effect follows it, by accident. See Matthew 10:34-35, See also Luke 12:49. It is by accident to the sun that it maketh the dunghill stink. It is by accident to the sea that it maketh the passenger sick; the ill humours in his stomach disease him. So here. And the desire of all nations shall come] That is, Christ, for so the apostle expoundeth it, Hebrews 12:25-26. And the Church saith of him, Totus ipse desideria, Son 5:16, he is all over desirable ( Valete mea desideria. Goodbye my love, Cic. xiv. 2, ad Uxorem et Filiam to wives and daughters). And again, Isaiah 26:9 "With my soul have I desired thee in the night: yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early." "And unto Shiloh shall the gathering of the people be," saith Jacob, Genesis 49:10, as unto the standard bearer, Son 5:10, the carcase, Matthew 24:28, as the doves scour to their columbaries, Isaiah 60:8.

(7) And the desire of all nations shall come.—Better, and the precious things of all the nations shall come—scil., shall be brought as offerings. (Comp. Zephaniah 3:10; Zechariah 14:16.) So apparently the LXX., ἥξειτὰἐκλεκτὰπάντωντῶνἐθνῶν. The rendering of the Authorised Version, which is based on Jerome’s et venit desideratus cunctis gentibus, is grammatically impossible with the present text, for the verb “come” is plural, not singular. Its retention in some of the modern commentaries is mainly attributable to a natural unwillingness to give up a direct Messianic prophecy. Apart, however, from the grammatical difficulty, it must be remarked that the Messiah was not longed for by all nations, and that if He had been there would be no point in mentioning the fact in the present connection. On the other hand, the prediction of Gentile offerings to the Temple is most appropriate. It is the answer to those who sorrowed when they contrasted the mean appearance of this present house with the glories of that built by Solomon (Haggai 2:3). It also explains the otherwise meaningless utterance in Haggai 2:8. Another possible rendering is that adopted by Fόrst, and (at one time) by Ewald, “And the pick of the nations shall come,” scil., with offerings to the Temple. The significance of the utterance is the same with either translation—scil., that by agencies not specified the Gentile world is to be converted and induced to offer worship and homage to Jehovah.

Verse 7. And the Desire of all nations shall come] The present Hebrew text is as follows: ובאו חמדת כל הגוים. This is a difficult place if understood of a person: but חמדת chemdath, desire, cannot well agree with באו bau, they shall come. It is true that some learned men suppose that חמדות chemdoth, desirable things, may have been the original reading: but this is supported by no MS., nor is באו found in the singular number in any. It is generally understood of the desirable or valuable things which the different nations should bring into the temple; and it is certain that many rich presents were brought into this temple. All are puzzled with it. But the principal difficulty lies in the verb ובאו ubau, they shall come. If we found ובאה חמדת ubaa chemdath in the singular, then it would read as in our text, And the Desire of all nations shall come: but no such reading appears in any MS.; nor is it fairly acknowledged, except by the Vulgate, which reads, Et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus, "And that which is desired," or the desired Person, "shall come to all nations." In Haggai 2:7 God says he will shake or stir up all nations; that these nations shall bring their desirable things; that the house shall be filled with God's glory; that the silver and gold, which these nations are represented as bringing by way of gifts, are the Lord's; and that the glory of this latter house shall exceed the former. Bp. Chandler labours to vindicate the present translation; but he makes rash assertions, and is abandoned by the Hebrew text. The בא ba, to come, is often used in the sense of bring, and that חמדת chemdath, desire, may be considered as the plural for חמדות, having the point holem instead of the ו vau, and thus mean desirable things, will not be denied by those who are acquainted with the genius and construction of the Hebrew language. Bp. Chandler thinks that בא, he came, cannot be used of things, but of persons only. Here he is widely mistaken, for it is used of days perpetually; and of the ark, 2 Samuel 6:9; and of mounts coming against Jerusalem, Jeremiah 32:24; and of trees coming to adorn the temple, Isaiah 60:13; and of silver and gold coming into the temple, Joshua 6:19; and Jeremiah 6:20, Why doth incense come to me? See Abp. Secker's notes. I cannot see how the words can apply to Jesus Christ, even if the construction were less embarrassed than it is; because I cannot see how he could be called THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS. The whole seems to be a metaphorical description of the Church of Christ, and of his filling it with all the excellences of the Gentile world, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in.

7. I will shake all nations] “There was a general shaking upon earth before our Lord came. Empires rose and fell. The Persian fell before Alexander’s; Alexander’s world-empire was ended by his sudden death in youth; of his four successors two only continued, and they, too, fell before the Romans; then were the Roman civil wars, until under Augustus, the temple of Janus was shut.” Pusey. The second and third of Daniel’s four great kingdoms, the Medo-Persian and the Græco-Macedonian, and (if with some we identify it with the successors of Alexander in Syria and Egypt) the fourth kingdom also, were to pass away before our Lord appeared. Daniel 2:36-45. the desire of all nations shall come] Setting aside various other renderings of these words which have little to recommend them—e.g. “I will shake all nations, and they (all nations) shall come with the desire (the desirable things) of all nations (in their hands as offerings);” or, “they shall come to the desire of all nations;” or yet again, “the choicest of nations, nobilissimi omnium populorum, shall come,”—and adhering to the rendering of the A. V., we have two principal interpretations to choose between. There is the view that Christ Himself is here spoken of as “the Desire of all nations” (et veniet desideratus gentibus, Vulgate), i.e. He for Whom all nations consciously or unconsciously yearn, in Whom alone all the longings of the human heart find satisfaction. Very beautiful, as well as very Christian, is the idea thus conveyed: Christ, “the longed-for of the nations before He came, by that mute longing of need for that which it wants as the parched ground thirsteth for the rain.” Archbishop Trench has worked it out in some particulars in a course of Hulsean lectures under the title, “Christ, the Desire of all nations, or the unconscious prophesyings of heathendom.” But interesting as is this view, and strong the temptation to maintain it at any cost, there are objections to it which cannot satisfactorily be overcome. The word “desire” is in the singular number, the verb “shall come” is in the plural. It is literally “the desire of all nations they shall come.” To the difficulty of understanding this of a person it does not seem a sufficient answer, to describe it as “the delicacy of the phrase, whereby manifoldness is combined in unity, the object of desire containing in itself many objects of desire;” as “a great heathen master of language said to his wife, ‘fare you well, my longings,’ i.e. she who manifoldly met the longings of his heart, and had in herself manifold gifts to content them[33]” (Pusey). Still more difficult is it to make this view harmonise with the context. The following verse is, The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts. It is forced and unnatural to make these words mean, “I have no need of gold or silver. The whole wealth of the world is mine.

And the desire of all nations shall come - The words can only mean this, the central longing of all nations He whom they longed for, either through the knowledge of Him spread by the Jews in their

Haggai 2:6-9 expand the promise of Hag 2:4-5. Jehovah will manifest his presence and power by a great shaking of nature and of the nations of the earth (6, 7a); as a result the nations will recognize