Most of the minor prophets in the Old Testament spoke prior to the Babylonian captivity. But the last three prophets, those at the very end of the Old Testament, occurred after the exile, when the people of Israel have returned to Judah and are rebuilding the temple and the city. Haggai and Zechariah began their prophecies about 520 BC, as the temple was being rebuilt. (Haggai and Zechariah are explicitly mentioned in Ezra 5:1-2.) Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, probably spoke around 460 BC, when Ezra and then Nehemiah were active.
Haggai's prophecy begins in the second year of King Darius, about 520 BC. He has one agenda -- the temple must be rebuilt! A theme verse might be 1:8:
Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.
For those reading the book much later, the message emphasizes putting God first, before other material needs.
Other important verses are 1:14:
So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God,
and 2:6-7:
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty.
Little is known about Haggai. His name translates as "my feast", and so he may have been born on a feast day. The Septuagint gives him as author of Psalm 138 and Psalms 146-9. He may have been a priest, but commentators debate that. It is suspected that Haggai was elderly when he made his prophecies. Some read into 2:3 the suggestion that Haggai saw the original temple seventy years before. Whether or not this verse records Haggai's memories of Solomon's temple, Haggai does not appear again in history after the end of his prophecy in December 520 BC. But his prophetic voice is past on to a younger man, Zechariah, in the book immediately following the book of Haggai.
According to Joyce Baldwin (p. 32), much of the book of Haggai is found in the ancient Scroll of the Twelve from the caves of Murabba'at.
Outline
The short book of Haggai falls into four parts.
- Haggai 1, Build now!
- Haggai 2:1-9, Encouragment for the longterm
- Haggai 2:10-19, Blessing
- Haggai 2:20-23, The Future Day
Each part is preceeded by a date. We know enough about the reign of Darius that we can translate those dates into the modern Julian calendar with a possible error of no more than a single day (says Baldwin.)
Resources and References
For the book of Haggai I have relied on the following resources:
- a commentary by Robert L. Alden in the seventh volume of the Expositor's Bible Commentary, Zondervan 1985.
- a commentary by Joyce Baldwin in Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi: An Introduction & Commentary (The Tyndale Old Testament Commentary Series) 1981.
- a commentary by J. Alec Motyer in The Minor Prophets: A Commentary on Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, edited by Thomas Edward McComiskey, 2018.
If I refer to Alden, Baldwin or Motyer in the notes, it is in reference to the commentaries above.
There are additional resources. The following are online.
- Amongst the online commentaries provided by EasyEnglishBible, is an online commentary on Haggai.
- The Gospel Coalition now has a set of online commentaries. Their commentary on Haggai is here.
- The Bible Project videos are always excellent. I recommend their video on Haggai.
I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window... and go down a rabbit hole if they wish!
Like most Old Testament writings, there is considerable wordplay. There is alliteration, punning, chiasmi, and so on. I do not know Hebrew and so I lean on the commentators to alert me to some of these.
Abbreviations
Anyone serious about study in the Old Testament must become aware of the ancient Near Eastern culture in which these works were written. If I discuss that culture in a blogpost, I will often fall back on the abbreviation ANE for "ancient Near East."
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