Lange Commentary - Haggai 1:12 - 1:15

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Lange Commentary - Haggai 1:12 - 1:15


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

SECOND ADDRESS

On the Repentance of the People, God’s Presence among Them is promised

Hag_1:12-15

12And Zerubbabel, son of Shaltiel, and Joshua, son of Josadak, the High Priest, and all the rest of the people, listened to the voice of Jehovah their God, and to the words of Haggai the Prophet, according as Jehovah their God had sent him; 13and the people feared before Jehovah. Then Haggai the Prophet of Jehovah spoke to the people on the mission of Jehovah, saying: I am with you, saith Jehovah. 14And Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, son of Shaltiel, Governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Josadak, the High Priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people, and they came and worked upon the House of Jehovah 15of Hosts their God, On the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the King.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

The effect of the Prophet’s words upon the people was powerful and abiding, and upon the very first indication of a change in their disposition, he is commissioned to tell them that God’s favor had already returned, and that He would assist them in their labors. The work is then speedily recommenced under the influence of that new zeal with which Jehovah inspires both leaders and people.

Hag_1:12. The dispute among the expositors as to whether ùְׁàֵøִéú äָöָí means: the remnant of the people, those left from the Captivity, or: the rest of the people would seem to be needless, as it is only those who listened to the Prophet’s discourses that are described here, and they were assuredly not “all the remnant” of the people. It is true that the address had been delivered on a feast day; but from the religious character of the community at that time, we can hardly suppose that it had assembled in a body to worship. Nor can it be a later occasion that is alluded to, when they might be fully represented. In that case we would have to take éִùְׁîַò as meaning that they obeyed the voice of the Lord. Their obedience is not exhibited before Hag_1:14-15, and what the present verse must mean is, that they were listening to the words above recorded. The words of Haggai the Prophet are, doubtless, not an additional discourse of Haggai unrecorded; they explain, by hendiadys, the voice of Jehovah their God, the message just delivered. It is unnecessary, with Koehler, Keil, et al., to render öַì øְּáַø , according to. It is in fact questionable whether áְּ and öַì indicate any difference in the application of ùׁîö . In 2Ki_20:13; Jer_23:16, öַì is used with this verb in the sense of listening to. ëַּàְַùֶׁø has here chiefly a causal sense. They discerned in the words of Haggai, the voice of God, and they listened to his address because he attested himself to be God’s messenger. And the people feared before Jehovah. This clause indicates one of the causes of the rapt attention of the people, as well as its most important result.

Hag_1:13. I am with you, saith Jehovah. This brief message, delivered at this crisis, is one of great significance in the experience of the people as reflected in the discourses of the Prophet. The fact that God could now promise his presence and assistance is proof that their fear before Him was followed by sincere repentance. In their ultimate significance the words themselves contain the only explanation of the immediate revival of the community, political and religious.

Hag_1:14-15. The promised presence and assistance of God, immediately vouchsafed, were manifested in the rekindled ardor of the discouraged leaders, who, with the repentant people, were now animated to engage with cheerful alacrity in the work to which they were summoned. After about three weeks spent in preparing material sufficient to justify the inception of the work, the walls of the Second Temple began again to rise from the foundations which had been laid fifteen years before by the same people.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

It is a decisive moment in the life of an individual or of a people when they are addressed with words of solemn warning, and discern therein the voice of God. On submission or indifference to those words is suspended their weal or woe, their glory or ruin. Let them but listen with that saving fear ( éִøְàָä , Hag_1:12) which is not hopeless terror, but in reality the birth-throes of a new and living hope, and Jehovah of Hosts Himself comes to be with them; and that not only for inspiration but also for help; the one being the condition of all noble exertion, the other the sure pledge of its triumph.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Hag_1:12. Successful preachers need not ascribe to themselves the merit of the results of their labors. It is the voice of God which makes their hearers listen.—Whom God would make strong for his service He first subdues to his fear.

Hag_1:13-14. The presence of God in our labors: (1) The conditions on which it may be secured; (1) The conditions on which it may be secured; (2) Its influences upon our souls; (3) Its consequences in our achievements.

Burck: “I am with you:” here all former threatening is recalled, and all former disobedience forgiven: When God, the Prime Mover, moves the heart, then the work moves forward.

Matthew Henry: When God has work to do, He will either find or make men fit to do it, and stir them up to it. Those that have lost time have need to redeem time.

Moore: God is waiting to be gracious, and will meet the returning wanderer, even before his hand has begun the work of his service.

Footnotes:

Hag_1:12.— ùַׁìְúִּéàִì , The first à is dropped here, as in Hag_1:14 and Hag_2:2; see Green, § 53, 3 a.

Hag_1:15.—Some MSS. and editions transfer this verse to the beginning of next chapter. The ordinary division is shown to be correct by the disagreement of dates in successive verses, which the other arrangement would involve.

The phrase “messenger of Jehovah” is not applied to prophets exclusively; see Mal_2:7, where it is employed of the priests. It was a term more appropriate to the province of the former, but, especially in later when prophecy was retiring more into the background, its functions were often naturally transferred in some measure to the former, who thus became teachers of the people. Comp. Hävernick, Einleitung, § 196.