3.8 A return to the general judgment (see 1.2–3, 17–18). Wait often suggests that something positive will follow (see Ps 33.20; Isa 8.17; Hab 2.3).
3.9 I will change…pure speech, lit. “I will give the speech of peoples lips that are clean” (see Isa 6.5).
3.11 On that day refers back to v. 9 and connects with 1.9 and 3.16. Proudly exultant ones alludes to the leaders in vv. 2–4.
3.12–13 I will leave plays on the same Hebrew word as remnant (v. 13) and contrasts with the negative remnants left in the land by other religions (see 1.4).
3.14–20 The call to sing sets a new tone for Zephaniah and assumes the restoration spoken of in vv. 8–13. From v. 14 through the first line of v. 18 (as on a day of festival) the prophet calls the remnant to rejoice (Isa 52.7–10; Zech 2.10; 9.9). The remainder of the chapter gives the promise spoken directly by the Lord.
3.14 Sing aloud, a public invitation to respond to the salvation that has come.
3.15 The reason for the people to sing.
3.16 On that day no longer refers to the day on which punishment arises (1.9–10), but a day on which it can be said Do not fear, an introduction to words of salvation (see Isa 10.24).
3.17 With loud singing. The same Hebrew word used to call the people to sing aloud (v. 14) now has the Lord responding in kind.
3.19 Oppressors includes those within Judah and those in other nations.
3.20 Gather no longer carries the irony of gathering straw (see note on 2.1) but is more like the gathering a shepherd does of lambs (Isa 40.11; Jer 23.3). The restoration of fortunes envisaged is much like that described in Deut 30.1–4.
HAGGAI
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Name
THE BOOK OF HAGGAI gives us no personal information about the seer whose name it bears. Later tradition obviously regards “the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo” as contemporary figures (Ezra 5.1; 6.14). Neither prophet ever mentions the other, however, though their shared mission surely brought them together in the small town that Jerusalem was early in the Persian period. Perhaps Haggai’s name, which is derived from the Hebrew verbal root hgg, “to make a pilgrimage,” comes from his single-minded effort to bring about the reconstruction of that destination of ancient Judean pilgrims, the temple in Jerusalem.
Date, Content, and Message
IN CONTRAST TO the person of the author, information about the date of the book of Haggai is unusually precise. The chronological notices attached to the four oracles of the book place Haggai’s work between mid-August and mid-December, 520 BCE, early in the reign of Darius I (the Great), who ruled the Persian Empire from 522 to 486 BCE. In the decades after 539 BCE, when the Persian king Cyrus freed the Judean exiles from their Babylonian captivity, modest prosperity had evidently begun to return to the land. A start may even have been made at rebuilding the ruined temple in Jerusalem (see Ezra 5.14–16). Work must have stopped, how ever, for in 520 the prophet Haggai warns that until the temple is up and running, normal living will elude the Judean community (see note on 2.15).
Only a minimal story line ties together the sequence of sermons in the book, which moves chronologically from the prophet’s initial exhortation to Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, through the beginning of the reconstruction project, to the blessings that began to flow on the occasion of the consecration of the still unfinished structure. The actual completion of the work in 516/5 BCE (see Ezra 6.15) evidently lay outside Haggai’s purview. But what he saw under way moved him deeply, for he understood it to be the prelude to the coming messianic age. [W. SIBLEY TOWNER]
HAGGAI 1
The Command to Rebuild the Temple
1In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the LORD’s house. 3Then the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: 4Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. 6You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes.
7Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. 8Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD. 9You have looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the LORD of hosts. Because my house lies in ruins, while all of you hurry off to your own houses. 10Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and animals, and on all their labors.
12Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of the prophet Haggai, as the LORD their God had sent him; and the people feared the LORD. 13Then Haggai, the messenger of the LORD, spoke to the people with the LORD’s message, saying, I am with you, says the LORD. 14And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God, 15on the twenty-fourth day of the month, in the sixth month.
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1.1–15 The prophet speaks to Zerubbabel.
1.1 Sixth month…first day, August 29, 520 BCE. Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the grandson of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), the Judean king who enjoyed royal favor in Babylonian captivity (2 Kings 25.27–30; 1 Chr 3.17–19). He was presumably made governor of Judah by Darius, known simply (and favorably) as “the king .” Joshua son of Jehozadak, the first person to bear the title high priest in the OT (see Zech 3.8; 6.11). His father was a priest among the exiles in Babylon (1 Chr 6.15). Evidently Haggai was in a position to direct the Lord’s word to the leading people of the land.
1.2 These people, either the entire Judean community or the remnant (see v. 12) who had returned from Babylonian exile more than two decades earlier; however, the reference to paneled houses in v. 4 suggests that the message of the prophet was directed to the more affluent community leaders. The same contrast between the LORD’s house and the houses of the human authorities is present in 2 Sam 7.1–17. On the eve of Babylonian captivity, the prophet Jeremiah too had railed against the cedar paneling of the king’s house (Jer 22.13–17).
1.9 The forms of productivity listed in v. 11 were considered blessings by the ancient Judahites, but they lacked all of them. Haggai identifies the cause: God’s house is neglected while individuals hurry off uncaringly to their own houses. It is noteworthy that, although earlier prophets found the cultic worship of their own day corrupt and repugnant (e.g., Am 5.21–24; Isa 1.10–15; Mic 6.6–8), Haggai and Zechariah focus on a different community abuse: the failure to restore the temple and its ritual system.
1.13–15a The simple but reassuring word brought by the messenger of the LORD (see Mal 3.1) results in stirred up spirits. In this case, prophecy works; however, more than three weeks elapse after Haggai’s first oracle before the reconstruction of the temple gets under way.
1.15b–2.9 Second address to Zerubbabel.
HAGGAI 2
The Future Glory of the Temple
1In the second year of King Darius, 1in the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: 2Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people, and say, 3Who is left among you that saw t
his house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? 4Yet now take courage, O Zerubbabel, says the LORD; take courage, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; take courage, all you people of the land, says the LORD; work, for I am with you, says the LORD of hosts, 5according to the promise that I made you when you came out of Egypt. My spirit abides among you; do not fear. 6For thus says the LORD of hosts: Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; 7and I will shake all the nations, so that the treasure of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. 8The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts. 9The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the LORD of hosts.
A Rebuke and a Promise
10On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came by the prophet Haggai, saying: 11Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests for a ruling: 12If one carries consecrated meat in the fold of one’s garment, and with the fold touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priests answered, “No.” 13Then Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?” The priests answered, “Yes, it becomes unclean.” 14Haggai then said, So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, says the LORD; and so with every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean. 15But now, consider what will come to pass from this day on. Before a stone was placed upon a stone in the LORD’s temple, 16how did you fare?a When one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were but twenty. 17I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail; yet you did not return to me, says the LORD. 18Consider from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider: 19Is there any seed left in the barn? Do the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree still yield nothing? From this day on I will bless you.
God’s Promise to Zerubbabel
20The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, 22and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I am about to destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations, and overthrow the chariots and their riders; and the horses and their riders shall fall, every one by the sword of a comrade. 23On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel my servant, son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts.
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a Gk: Heb since they were
2.1 Seventh month…twenty-first day, October 17, 520 BCE.
2.3 Persons old enough to remember the appearance of the First Temple prior to its destruction in 587 would have to have been at least seventy-three years of age when Haggai said these words.
2.4–5 I am with you…Egypt. Haggai compares the spirit of God in the midst of the community of his day to the manifestation of God’s presence in the pillars of cloud and fire during the exodus from Egypt (Ex 13.21–22). Do not fear. The admonition that was addressed to Abram at the beginning of Israelite history (Gen 15.1) continues late in the canon to be a vital word of encouragement (see also Zech 8.13, 15). From the poverty, despair, and factionalism of the restored people of the land the Lord promises deliverance.
2.6–9 God will take such powerful action against all the nations that, because of their tribute in gold and silver, the splendor of the Second Temple will eclipse that of the First. The notion that the “wealth of nations” would flow to the future restored Jerusalem is a favorite theme of another late sixth-century BCE prophet, so-called Third Isaiah (Isa 56–66; see Isa 60.11; 61.6; 66.12).
2.23 Consistent with the promise to David in 2 Sam 7.16, Zerubbabel, the descendant of David, is chosen to be the Lord’s signet ring (see Sir 49.11). Just as the bearer of the king’s signet ring enjoyed the authority of the king (see Esth 3.10;8.2; Jer 22.24), so also the chosen one acted on behalf of the Lord (cf. Isa 42.1; 43.10; see also the attribution of future cosmic authority to Zerubbabel in Zech 4.6–10). Earlier prophets such as Jeremiah spoke words of judgment against the kings of their day. In contrast, the words of Haggai culminate in an apparent effort to exalt the Judean monarchy.
2.10–14 An indictment of the people in dialogue form.
2.10 Twenty-fourth day…ninth month, December 18, 520 BCE.
2.12 Even though the temple had not yet resumed its function as the source of holiness in Judah, the priests remember that consecrated meat cannot make other foodstuffs holy by contact (cf. Lev 6.26–27).
2.13 Things can, however, become unclean through contact with what is ritually unclean.
2.14 Now the point of these priestly rulings becomes clear: like a corpse, the Judean people are themselves unclean. Thus, they cannot make offerings acceptable to God because every work of their hands (i.e., agricultural produce; see v. 17) is unclean. The source of their uncleanness is not identified, but the desecration of the temple and the consequent loss of its atoning and purifying functions seems likely to be the cause.
2.15–19 The prophet promises a new era.
2.15 From this day on (see v. 10) suggests that a milestone has been reached in the temple reconstruction project. Whereas in 1.14 the people came and worked on the house of the LORD, here they have placed stone…upon stone, suggesting that a foundation deposit ceremony or consecration took place. The blessing that now begins to flow (v. 19) hints that the prophet regarded this day of dedication as the prelude to the “day of the LORD,” beyond which lay the blessed new age of peace and plenty foreseen by the earlier prophets (e.g., Am 9.11–15).
2.17 See Am 4.9.
2.20–23 On the same day that he spoke the words of vv. 10–19, Haggai addressed a final oracle directly to Zerubbabel.
2.21–22 The Lord’s immanent intervention means cosmic quakes (see v. 6; Joel 3.16) and military disaster for the kingdoms of the nations (see Ex 15.1–10).
2.23 Consistent with the promise to David in 2 Sam 7.16, Zerubbabel, the descendant of David, is chosen to be the Lord’s signet ring (see Sir 49.11). Just as the bearer of the king’s signet ring enjoyed the authority of the king (see Esth 3.10;8.2; Jer 22.24), so also the chosen one acted on behalf of the Lord (cf. Isa 42.1; 43.10; see also the attribution of future cosmic authority to Zerubbabel in Zech 4.6–10). Earlier prophets such as Jeremiah spoke words of judgment against the kings of their day. In contrast, the words of Haggai culminate in an apparent effort to exalt the Judean monarchy.
ZECHARIAH
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Date, Authorship, and Context
THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH is generally agreed to have been written by more than one person. The eight visions and numerous prophetic oracles that make up so-called First Zechariah, chs. 1–8, begin in October/November 520 (1.1) and end in December 518 BCE (7.1). There seems no reason to question this chronological framework, nor for that matter the attribution of the first part of the book to one of the exiles returned from Babylon (see note on 1.1). The meaning of the name Zechariah, “Yahweh has remembered,” suggests that his role was to weave memories and traditions of the First Temple period into the new directions taken after the exile.
The Judean exiles began to return from Babylonian captivity after 539 BCE, armed with the so-called edict of Cyrus (Ezra 6.3–5), which permitted them to rebuild the holy sanctuary in Jerusalem. Perhaps they were guided as well by the visionary plan of restoration put forth in Ezek 40–48; certainly they were animated by the stunning promises of the great prophet of the exile, the author of Isa 40–55 (Second Isaiah). Reconstruction work began rather quickly under Sheshbazzar, the descenda
nt of David appointed by the Persians to be the governor of Judah, but then for unknown reasons it stopped (see Ezra 4.4–5; 5.13–16). More than a decade later, during the tension stirred up throughout the Persian Empire by the accession of Darius I in 522 BCE, first Haggai, then Zechariah sprang into prophetic action. Haggai stresses the importance of rebuilding the temple so that the elect and restored community of Judah might enjoy the divine blessings that flow from right worship. In contrast to this practical program for restoration, Zech 1–6 offers cosmic visions of the world at peace and foresees pivotal roles for Zerubbabel, the Davidic governor (nephew of Sheshbazzar), and Joshua, the high priest. Even the nonvisionary prophetic oracles collected together in chs. 7–8 sound a strong note of hope for the Jerusalem of the future. In short, First Zechariah aims to provide a theological rationale for the emerging new order of Israel.
First and Second Zechariah Contrasted
THE VISIONS AND ORACLES of Zech 1–8 reflect the essentially hierocratic, or priestly, outlook of a “central prophet,” i.e., one who belonged to temple circles and who linked Israel’s salvation with worship and priestly leadership. An individual or a school with a more peripheral or socially marginal point of view speaks in Zech 9–14. This so-called Second (Deutero-) Zechariah does not display the editorial unity of the first eight chapters of the book. It reveals a pattern of steadily increasing disillusionment with the postexilic polity and a sense that the glorious vision of a just society put forward by Isaiah of the exile (chs. 40–55) and by his visionary successor in Zech 1–8 was not going to be achieved by a priestly-Davidic establishment centered in Jerusalem.
Nevertheless, Second Zechariah offers images of a coming new age of holiness and peace, brought in by Yahweh alone, that are even more powerful than those of First Zechariah. An editor has collected into the first “oracle” (chs. 9–11) vivid poetic portrayals of Yahweh as victorious Divine Warrior. In the second collection of mostly prose vision reports (chs. 12–14), an ever more urgent sense of the impending “day of the LORD” suggests that the author(s) worked over a number of decades. The culminating vision of ch. 14 may have occurred late in the fifth century BCE. This would place these chapters in the company of such other protoapocalyptic texts as Joel 2.28–3.21; Isa 24–27. [W. SIBLEY TOWNER]
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