Matthew Poole Commentary - Haggai 1:15 - 1:15

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Matthew Poole Commentary - Haggai 1:15 - 1:15


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It appeareth then that Zerubbabel and Joshua, with the people, did resolve on the matter quickly; for in three weeks and three days they are at the work, as is evident; on the first day Haggai preached, Hag_1:1, on the twenty-fourth day of the month the people are at work, Hag_1:15.



Darius: see Hag_1:1. Now this Darius was not Darius Nothus, but Darius Hystaspes, as will appear by considering well the following scheme of years, from the captivity to the particular years of each of these two Dariuses. Suppose we therefore the computation of these years, according to either of these schemes, it will appear that there is no likelihood this Darius in the text should be Darius Nothus.





Helvicus. Usher.



Captivity 3350 3398.

Temple burnt 3360 3416.

Cyrus’s decree 3420 3468.

The decree of Darius, Nothus 3529 Hystaspes 3485.



This latter account begins the captivity at the fourth year of

Jehoiakim. the former begins it at the first of Jeconiah’s reign, as

Ezekiel also doth, Eze_1:2 40:1. Hence that difference which is in

the account of the years between the beginning of the captivity and the

burning of the temple; the former account makes it eleven years, the

latter makes it eighteen, for it begins seven years sooner. In what

follows, we shall find both agreeing well enough to clear the

unlikelihood of Darius Nothus being the king intended here.



Both accounts make the captivity to end in the seventieth year,

according to the Scripture. But now the former account makes it one

hundred and nine years between Cyrus’s decree and Darius’s decree; all

which time the temple by this account lay desolate, without a prophet

to stir them up to their duty of building the temple. Now is this

probable? can it be reasonably supposed that the temple should so long

lie waste after they were sent out of Babylon purposely to build it? or

that they should be so long in that condition without a prophet? But

now the latter account reckons seventeen years between Cyrus’s and

Darius’s decree for building the temple, a space of time easily

conceived likely to pass while the Jews did not build; nay, were

forbidden by Cambyses, (in Scripture called Artaxerxes,) viceroy to his

father Cyrus, (engaged in foreign wars,) all the time Cyrus lived after

he gave out the decree, which some make more, some less, but those who

make the likeliest guess, for aught I know, make it five years. Whether

Cyrus, taken up with these wars, did know of this prohibition, or

thought not good to take it off till he returned conqueror, I know not;

but he died and left this bar on the work, which continued all

Cambyses’s reign, and unto the second year of his successor Darius

Hystaspes. Now if this were seventeen the most, some say but fifteen,

others but twelve years, it is very probable, whereas one hundred and

nine years is utterly improbable. Besides this, let us view what age

those many or few were of, by these different accounts, who lived to

see the temple re-edified. If in Darius Nothus’s time, they could be no

less than one hundred and eighty-five, allowing them to be sixteen at

the burning of the temple, thus; sixteen when the temple was burnt,

thence sixty to Cyrus’s decree, and thence one hundred and nine to

Darius Nothus’s decree. But by the latter account their age amounts but

to ninety-five years, which appears thus; sixteen at the time the

temple was burnt, thence sixty to Cyrus’s decree, thence seventeen to

Darius Hystaspes’s decree; in all ninety-five, which though a great

age, yet not improbable at that time, though the other (one hundred and

eighty-five) be improbable. Besides, how few through one hundred and

sixty-nine years can distinctly remember what they saw and took notice

of at sixteen, or could make that judgment of the disproportion between

the two temples! Hag_2:3. Or can it be supposed that Zecaraiah Zec

1:12) would have accounted but seventy years’ desolation, when he

might have more than doubled the years, and have reckoned one hundred

and sixty-nine years? would not the argument thus have been more moving?