Haggai 2, Make It Holy

In two previous messages, the prophet Haggai has instructed governor Zerubbabel and high priest Joshua on the need to rebuild the temple. The people have responded with enthusiasm. A third message arrives a month later.

Haggai 2:1-3, Compared to former glory

On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: 

"Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them,`Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?  

The third message to Haggai comes about a month and a half after the first message. The people have been working together on the temple for about a month. 

There may be some still alive who remember the first temple, destroyed about seventy years before. If so, they recall from their childhood the grandeur of Solomon's temple. To these elderly Jews -- Haggai might be one of them -- the simplicity of the new temple, now under construction, is sad and discouraging.

The seventh month would have been a month of many festivals (Baldwin, p. 46.) Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) would have begun on the 15th day of the seventh month and then would have continued for 7 days, ending on the twenty-first day. As that feast celebrates the tent-living of the Exodus, it is an appropriate festival for God to speak through Haggai about rebuilding the Temple/Tabernacle.

Haggai 2:4-5, "Be strong"   

But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,' 

declares the LORD. `

Be strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,' 

declares the LORD,

`and work. For I am with you,' 

declares the LORD Almighty.  

`This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.' 

Just as YHWH brought Israel out of Egypt and had them build the first temple, so now they are to continue with a new one. They, like Joshua long before them (Joshua 1:6), are to be strong and do the required work.

Haggai 2:6-7, Shake the earth

"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 the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' 

says the LORD Almighty.  

A time will come, "soon", in which YHWH's power will be revealed to all the nations. The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint differ slightly on the phase "the desired of all nations." Is the "desired" a prosperity of nations? Or is it a desired individual, the Desired Messiah? In the New Testament, Hebrews 12:25-29 certainly views this passage as messianic, quoting verse 6. 

Isaiah speaks of a new temple drawing all people to it (Isaiah 2:2-3) as does Micah (Micah 4:1-2.)

Haggai 2:8-9, Glory to come

`The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' 

declares the LORD Almighty.  

`The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' 

says the LORD Almighty. 

`And in this place I will grant peace,' 

declares the LORD Almighty."  

In this future day, the new temple will have a glory greater than the old. It will be a time of peace (Hebrew, shalom), centered on Jeru-shalom, the city of peace. For many readers, this is a messianic statement, as this second temple will someday host the Messiah.

Haggai 2:10-14, Defilement

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Haggai:  

"This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Ask the priests what the law says:  If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?'" 

The priests answered, "No."  

Then Haggai said, "If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?" 

"Yes," the priests replied, "it becomes defiled."  

Then Haggai said, 

"`So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,' 

declares the LORD. 

`Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.  

Haggai gives two cryptic questions to the priests. The questions focus on holiness and defilement. In the first case, holiness (or consecration) is apparently not transmitted to objects that it touches; it is not contagious (says Alden, p. 588.) But defilement is contagious; a defiled object can defile other things. (See Leviticus 22:4-6.) This is true, says Haggai, of the people. If they are defiled, then they defile what they touch. 

Haggai 2:15-19, "Give careful thought"

"`Now give careful thought to this from this day on --consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the LORD's temple. When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty. I struck all the work of your hands with blight, mildew and hail, yet you did not turn to me,' 

declares the LORD. 

`From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.

 

"`From this day on I will bless you.'"  

The people are to think carefully about their own defilement of the future temple and kingdom. They have been experiencing poverty: where they expect twenty measures of seed they only have ten; where they expect fifty measures of wine, they only have twenty. (Amos gave similar warnings: Amos 4:9.) The future prosperity of the people will turn on their commitment to God and His temple.

It is possible that the ruins of the temple still had foundations and stone walls. A description of the destruction 68 years before is given in 2 Kings 25:8-17.

The final verses of the book of Haggai shift to a future event.

Haggai 2:20-23, Signet ring

The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 

"Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I will shake the heavens and the earth.  I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.  

"`On that day,' 

declares the LORD Almighty, 

`I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,' declares the LORD, `and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,' declares the LORD Almighty."      

     
In that future, when YHWH overthrows all the kingdoms, Zerubbabel will be treated as a special signet ring of YHWH! In this strange passage, Zerubbabel becomes a messianic symbol. Is the "signet ring" a future descendant of Zerubbabel? (The early Christian church seemed to have believed this -- see the lineage of Yeshua/Jesus in Matthew 1:12.) 

This story, says the Bible Project, is continued in Zechariah and Malachi. Indeed, the first prophecy of Zechariah (next blogpost) occurs a month after the visions of Haggai above.

First published December 9, 2025; updated December 9, 2025