Haggai 2:8

The silver [is] mine, and the gold [is] mine, saith the Lord of hosts.

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts - (Job 41:11; Psalms 50:12).

The right as indisputable, the treasures of both as full and large, doubt not therefore but I will give enough to build this house; and I could beautify it with these as much as the first temple, but I intend a greater glory. I am the Proprietor, others but trustees; I have the full disposal of all.

Haggai 2:8 The silver [is] mine, and the gold [is] mine, saith the LORD of hosts.Ver. 8. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts] Whereas the Jews might object that it was not likely the second temple should be more glorious than the first, since they wanted that wealth wherewith Solomon abounded; God answereth in like sort, as once he did Moses, alleging the slowness of his speech, "Who hath made man’ s mouth?" Exodus 4:10-11, so here, whose is the silver and the gold? Am not I the true proprietor and chief Lord of all? cannot I furnish you out of my great purse, the earth, and the fulness thereof? Psalms 24:1 ( Terra est marsupium Domini). What is silver and gold but white and red earth, the guts and garbage of the earth, as one phraseth it? things that I have no need of, Psalms 50:13. They lie furthest from heaven; the best of them are in Ophir (perhaps the same with Peru), furthest from the Church. Adam had them in the first paradise, Genesis 2:11-12, in the second you shall not need them, Job 26:2-3, &c. In defect of other, I myself will be your gold, and you shall have plenty of silver, Job 22:25. Christ, girt about the paps (that seat of love) with a golden girdle, shall walk in the midst of his seven golden candlesticks, Revelation 1:12-13, with a golden censer in his hand, perfuming and presenting the prayers of his people upon the golden altar, Revelation 8:3, and measuring that city of pearl, his Church, with a golden reed, Revelation 21:15. Ribera and some others think that God, as of old he had stirred up Cyrus and Darius (both of them heathens) to contribute to the building of the temple, so afterwards he stirred up Herod, a wealthy king, not long before Christ came, to bestow abundance of cost upon the same temple; and that this was here afore prophesied. But I should rather incline to Calvin, who doubteth not but that the devil stirred up Herod to do as he did; that the Jews, doting upon the splendour of that brave structure (the disciples did no less, Matthew 24:1-2), might cease looking for Christ or trusting in him. And who knows (saith be) whether Herod himself might not have such a fetch in his head. Howsoever, the devil was in it, doubtless, to take off their minds from the expectation of Christ’ s coming, which was now at hand, by those external pomps; and to withdraw the spirits of the godly from the furniture and gaiety of the spiritual temple.

(8) Silver . . . gold.—It is unnatural to suppose that this is said in the sense of Ps. 1:10, as implying “I have no need of silver or gold.” Clearly what is meant is that the treasures of earth are at God’s disposal, and that He will incite the Gentiles to offer their silver and gold in His Temple. A rigid application of this prediction is impossible. (See Introduction, § 2.)

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.

The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine - These words, which have occasioned some to think, that God, in speaking of the glory with which He should fill the house, meant our material riches, suggest the contrary.

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