CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:1:  “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month” = Approximately in the year B.C. 520.  This would be calculated by the Jewish reconning.  Thus, Nisan, the first of the ecclesiastical year (which was still used for holy purposes and in sacred history) would be what is referred to here.

 

This would be two months before Zechariah received a similar commission, when the Word of God came to him in the eighth month of the same year (Zec. 1:1).  The Babylonian system of calendars would be the beginning of the new year in the spring rather than in the fall.  This would put the date as being 1 Elul (August 29 on the English calendar), B.C. 520.

 

Haggai 1:1; Zechariah 1:1:  “unto Zerubbabel” = See Ezra 6:14.

 

1:2:  “This people say” = “The expression, ‘This people say,’ is significant.  In the hour of their opportunity, the Israelites had not shown themselves willing.  Prompt obedience is expected of those whom the Lord chooses and leads.  Pleas for delay are a dishonor to God. . . Thus the Israelites declared that they had begun to rebuild, but that they were broken off in their work because of the hindrances devised by their enemies. . . They declared that the Lord had interposed difficulties to reprove their hot haste.  This is why, in a communication through His prophet, He referred to them not as ‘My people,’ but as ‘this people.’ ”  RH, December 5, 1907; 4BC:1175; 10MR:122.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

2:3:  “saw this house in her first glory” = This second Temple, although not as magnificent as the first, was “in comparison of it” greater, in that it would see Jesus Himself walking in it; being as it were, “The Desire of all nations,” filling “this [new] House with glory,” verse 7; being “greater than of the Former,” verse 9.

 

2:10:  “In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius” = The Babylonian calendar of 24 Kislev (English calendar December 18th), B.C. 520.

 

2:12:  “holy flesh” = This is to be understood of the flesh of creatures offered in sacrifice, which were sanctified or separated for holy use; part of which belonged to the priests, who might carry it in their pockets to the proper place of eating it.  However, it would not be holy if touched by common food.

 

2:23:  “signet” = Haggai was saying that in Zerubbabel God was reversing the curse pronounced on Jehoiachin (his grandfather; see Jer. 22:24-25).  And if God makes you His signet, He will also reverse the sin that is/was found in you.