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In this chapter we have three sermons preached by the prophet Haggai for the encouragement of those that are forward to build the temple. In the first he assures the builders that the glory of the house they were now building should, in spiritual respects, though not in outward, exceed that of Solomon's temple, in which he has an eye to the coming of Christ (Hag 2:1-9). In the second he assures them that though their sin, in delaying to build the temple, had retarded the prosperous progress of all their other affairs, yet now that they had set about it in good earnest he would bless them, and give them success (Hag 2:10-19). In the third he assures Zerubbabel that, as a reward of his pious zeal and activity herein, he should be a favourite of Heaven, and one of the ancestors of Messiah the Prince, whose kingdom should be set up on the ruins of all opposing powers (Hag 2:20-23).

INTRODUCTION TO HAGGAI 2 This chapter contains three sermons or prophecies, delivered by the prophet to the people of the Jews. The design of the first is to encourage them to go on with the building of the temple, though it might seem to come greatly short of the former temple, as to its outward form and splendour. The time of the prophecy, Hag 2:1 an order to deliver it to the governor, high priest, and all the people, Hag 2:2. A question is put concerning the difference between this temple and the former; between which it is suggested there was no comparison; which is assented to by silence, Hag 2:3 nevertheless, the prince, priest, and people, are exhorted to go on strenuously in the work of building; encouraged with a promise of the presence of the Lord of hosts, and of his Word, in whom he covenanted with them at their coming out of Egypt, and of the blessed Spirit, and his continuance with them, Hag 2:4 and, the more to remove their fears and faintings, it is declared that in a very short time a most wonderful thing should be done in the world, which would affect all the nations of the earth; for that illustrious Person would come, whom all nations do or should desire; and, not only come into the world, but into that temple they were building, and give it a greater glory than the former; yea, a greater glory than if all the gold and silver in the world were laid out upon it, or brought into it; which being all the Lord's, could have been easily done by him; but he would give in it something infinitely greater than that, even the Prince of peace, with all the blessings of it, Hag 2:6 then follows the second sermon or prophecy, the time of which is observed, Hag 2:10 and it is introduced with some questions concerning ceremonial uncleanness, by an unclean person's touching holy flesh with the skirt of his garment; and other things, which is confirmed by the answer of the priests, Hag 2:11 the application of which is made to the people of the Jews, who were alike unclean; they, their works, and their sacrifices, Hag 2:14 and these are directed to consider, that, during the time they had neglected to build the temple, they were attended with scarcity of provisions; their fields and vineyards being blasted with mildew or destroyed by hail, and their labours proved unsuccessful, Hag 2:15 but now, since they had begun the work of building, it is promised they should be blessed with everything, though they had nothing in store, and everything was unpromising to them; which is designed to encourage them to go on cheerfully in their begun work, Hag 2:18 and the chapter is concluded with the last discourse or prophecy, the date of which is given, Hag 2:20 an instruction to deliver it to Zerubbabel, Hag 2:21 foretelling the destruction of the kingdoms of the heathen; and the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah, of whom Zerubbabel was a type, precious and honourable in the sight of God, Hag 2:22.

Then answered Haggai, and said,.... To the priests, and before the people; and made an application of these things to them, which was the thing in view in putting the questions: So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the Lord; not only those people that were present and at work at the temple, but those that were absent, even the whole body of the people; who, though they were pure in their own eyes, yet were not so before the Lord; who knew their hearts, and the spring of all their actions; what were their ends and views in all they did: as a garment carrying in it holy flesh could not sanctify other things touched by it that were common and profane, but left them as they were; so their ritual devotions, and externally holy actions, did not and could not sanctify their impure hearts, but left them as unclean as before; nor did they sanctify their common mercies, their bread, pottage, wine, and oil: and, on the other hand, as an impure person made everything impure he touched; so they, being impure in heart, all their actions, even their religious ones, were impure also, as follows: and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean; pointing at the altar, which they had built, and offered sacrifice on ever since they came out of Babylon, though the temple was not yet built, Ezr 3:3 but all their outward religious services, and all the sacrifices they offered up, were in the Lord's account impure and abominable, as well as themselves; coming from an unsanctified heart, and offered up with unclean hands, and without repentance towards God, and faith in Christ; and living in other respects in disobedience to God, and especially while they neglected the building of the temple; satisfying themselves with offering sacrifices on the altar, when the house of God lay desolate; which is the principal thing respected, as appears by what follows.

(Verse 11 and following). On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius ((Vulg. adds King)), the word of the Lord came to the prophet Haggai, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts; ask the priests concerning the law, saying: If a man carries holy flesh in the fold of his garment, and touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, shall it become holy? And the priests answered and said: No. And Haggai said: If someone who is polluted in soul touches any of these things, will it be contaminated? And the priests answered and said: It will be contaminated. And Haggai replied and said: So will this people and this nation be before me, says the Lord; and so will all the work of their hands and all that they offer there be contaminated. 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, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts; ask the priests concerning the law, saying: If a person takes holy flesh in the corner of his garment and touches with the corner of his garment bread, or cooked food, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, shall it be sanctified? And the priests answered and said, No. And Haggai said, If one who is unclean by reason of a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean? The priests answered and said, It becomes unclean. Then Haggai answered and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the Lord, and so is every work of their hands; and whatever they offer there is unclean. Therefore, whoever comes near there becomes unclean, because of the morning offerings and the sacrifices that are offered there; they shall mourn because of their evil doings, and they shall be appalled at their own abominable practices. Therefore, we have included the edition of the Seventy Interpreters, because they seemed to differ in certain words. And this that is said: Because of their morning gifts, they will lament from the face of their wickedness, and they will argue at the gates with the ones who bring sweet-smelling offerings; neither in Hebrew, nor among other interpreters is it found. It should be noted that in this place: On the twentieth and fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year, it is not said for the third time as above: The word of the Lord came into the hand of the prophet Haggai; but it is said to the prophet Haggai. For there, because it was still making progress and only the works were pure, but his heart had not yet received full wisdom; either because he was still living among those who said, 'The time has not yet come to build the house of the Lord,' only his works became the word of the Lord. But now, since the foundations of the temple have been laid and the people have entered with their leaders into the house of God, and he is doing work befitting the temple of God, and he has heard the mystery: 'I will shake all nations, and the Desired One of all nations will come, and he is full of prophecy;' therefore, the whole oracle of the Lord is directed to Haggai. On the twenty-fourth day and the second year, we have already said: the number nine, which is added here, is never read in a good way. The people sacrifice the Passover lamb and celebrate other festivities; the whole solemnity ends on the eighth day and does not reach the ninth. Those who prepare the Passover lamb begin preparing it after the ninth day has passed. The day of atonement and expiation of the seventh month is also celebrated after the ninth day. And in Jeremiah (Chap. XIX and LII), as it can be clear to those reading, Jerusalem is besieged by the Babylonians in the ninth year. Therefore, because the prophecy of the impending defilement of the people was to come true, in the second year of Darius the ninth month is joined. Again, because a place of repentance is given after the correction of defilement, on the twenty-fourth day the word of God comes to the prophet Haggai, so that, as if in the person of the Lord, a question is asked of the priests coming from the law, and it is said to him: Ask the priests the law, saying. At the same time, consider it to be the duty of priests to respond to inquiries about the law. If someone is a priest, they should know the law of the Lord; if they are ignorant of the law, they prove themselves not to be a priest of the Lord. For it is the role of a priest to know the law and to respond to inquiries about the law. Indeed, we read in Deuteronomy (Chapter 17) that whenever a dispute arises in the towns of Israel between blood and blood, between judgment and judgment, between leprosy and leprosy, between contradiction and contradiction, they should go to the priests and Levites, and to the priest who is appointed in those days, and inquire about the law of the Lord. And when they have received a response, they should do as they are commanded. But if they do not do so, they shall be exterminated from their people. And lest these precepts appear only in the old Instrument, the Apostle also speaks to Timothy, that a bishop must not only be irreproachable, but also the husband of one wife, wise, chaste, adorned, hospitable, and also a teacher (1 Tim. 3). And lest it seem by chance that he said this, the same caution is observed in regard to the ordination of presbyters (whom he also wants to be understood as bishops) in Titus (1:5-9). Because of this, I left you in Crete, so that you could correct the things that needed finishing and appoint elders in each city, just as I instructed you: If any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who are not accused of wildness or unruly behavior. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not easily angered, not given to violence, not a striker, not greedy for filthy lucre; but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, holy, self-controlled, holding firmly to the faithful message as taught, so that he may be able to encourage others by sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it. For there are many who are not subject, empty talkers, and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whom it is necessary to silence. I have explained these things at length so that we may know that it is the duty of priests, both in the old and new Testament, to know the law of God and to respond to what they are asked. And simplicity and abstinence from foods are not enough in a teacher: unless he can also instruct others by what he does. Certainly, because I think they will answer: this is the task of those who from their youth prepare themselves for teaching, and who are often chosen as priests by the judgment of the Lord and the vote of the people. At least let them have this, that after they have been ordained as priests, they learn the law of God, so that they can teach what they have learned, and increase their knowledge more than their wealth, and not be ashamed to learn from laypeople, who know those things that pertain to the office of priests, and rather spend their nights and days in the study of the Scriptures than in reasoning and calculation. What is it that Haggai, speaking in the Lord's name, asks the priests? If a man carries holy flesh in the fold of his garment and touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any food, will it become holy? Before we discuss the question, we must first understand, according to the written word, what holy flesh is and what defiles the soul. The sacrifices that were offered on the altar consisted of these holy meats, and among them there was a great diversity. For some priests were eating in the inner sanctuary of the temple, others at home, others who seemed to be blemished from among the priests, and others who were Israelites and had no impurity. The reason for this diversity is said to be found in the book of Leviticus. However, one who had touched the body of a dead person was called unclean in the soul. In this, it should be noted that as long as the soul is in the body, the human body is not unclean. But as soon as the animating spirit leaves the limbs, that which is earthly becomes unclean, as it is written in the same book of Leviticus: 'And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the priests the sons of Aaron, and you shall say to them: They shall not become unclean in their souls among their people; but they may become unclean among their relatives who are close to them: over their mother, and over their father, and over their sons and daughters, and over their brothers and sisters who are virgins and who are not given to a husband. They shall not become unclean over these, and they shall not defile themselves suddenly among their people in their defilement.' (Lev. 21:1-2) Consider this command for the priests not to enter any dead person, except for their relatives and close ones, as mentioned above. But the high priest, that is, the pontiff, had something more than the other priests: neither piety nor affection could persuade him to become unclean in the aforementioned cases. For Scripture says: And he shall not enter on any soul that is dead: not even on his father or mother, and he shall not defile himself. Therefore, knowing what sanctified flesh is, and what is unclean in the soul, let us see what the prophet seeks. If any man, not this man who is called the Pontiff, or the priest, or the Levite; but any man: where the person is not specified, it is allowed to everyone everywhere to touch the flesh. If he takes, he says, the sanctified flesh, and ties it to the top of his garment, and the top of the garment touches bread, or any other cooked food, or wine, or oil, or any food besides these that a man can eat, can the bread, or wine, or oil, or any food, be sanctified by touching the garment to which the holy flesh is bound? And the responding priests said: It is not possible, that is, nothing of what you ask will be sanctified; but everything will remain as it was. Again, another question is posed to the priests: namely, if they have answered well to the previous one, and a similar problem is presented, in which an ignorant person could easily slip up. For let us suppose that someone does not know the law, and as he answered that sanctified meat does not sanctify bread, or porridge, or wine, or oil, or any food, he will also respond in this case and say: The defiled in the soul does not defile those things which the holy flesh could not sanctify. Therefore, he asks: If someone who is polluted in their soul, meaning someone who has become impure from contact with a dead body, touches any of these things, namely bread or porridge or wine or oil or other foods, will the things they touch be polluted as well? And the priests, whose leader was Jesus son of Josedec, who knew the law, answered and said that anything touched by someone who is impure will be polluted. And Haggai answered and said, keeping silent about the former things, that consecrated flesh cannot sanctify other foods; and he addressed the second question, saying: Thus says the Lord: This people and this nation, in my presence, are unclean in their souls, and if they touch anything that is dead, whatever they touch and whatever they offer to me will be unclean. And what he says according to the letter, is this: O people, who, after just building the altar and destroying my house, offer sacrifices to me on the altar, and think that you are sanctified by its victims and flesh: know that you are not sanctified by the sacrifices, which, with the temple destroyed, cannot benefit you; but rather, all your works and everything you do are contaminated because you neglect and are more concerned with building your own house than mine. Indeed, the offering on the altar is sacred; but you are not sanctified so much by the sacrifices as by dwelling in the valleys and being involved in dead works, you are polluted. This is according to history, although we have drawn spiritual lines of intelligence from it. Furthermore, according to the ἀναγωγὴ, just as Ecclesiasticus says, the man who offered an unblemished lamb and a yearling and was clothed with Christ, if he takes of its flesh and binds it on the top of his garment, and the top touches the bread of Scripture, which strengthens the hearts of believers, or the cooking, the apostolic Epistles, which cuts and cooks the flesh of the old Law and provides them for eating, or the wine that gladdens the heart of man, or the oil in which the face of the hearer is brightened, or any food: milk, with which the Corinthians are nourished (I Cor. 2), and vegetables on which the weak feed (Rom. XIV, 3), and other similar things: they do not immediately eat them as if they were sanctified, to whomever they may be given. For it is not from what is said, but from what is received, that the hearers are sanctified: because many are hearers of the law, but not doers. But also for this reason I believe that all these things which I have said, are not sanctified when carried from the touch of the garment to those who eat, because they only touch the surface of the cloak; and the inward parts, the moisture, the blood, the veins, and the nerves, are not known to be sanctified. Therefore, just as the surface of the Lord's garment and a light touch do not sanctify, unless the one who eats the flesh of the lamb and drinks his blood: so, on the contrary, uncleanness in the soul, and various perverse teachings, make whatever they touch unclean. For they have in their sacraments bread and wine and oil and all kinds of food; but their sacraments are like bread of mourning, all who touch them will be contaminated. They also read the Scriptures themselves and, as it were, sprinkle bread with testimonies from the Scriptures, and they cook it all night in a pan; but when it is given to be eaten, those who eat it are provoked to madness. They have porridge and cooking, attempting to weave mystical things from the Scriptures according to the sense of their own perversity, and as if to cook and season the flesh of the lamb, but that cooking is destruction. They have wine, but not from the vineyard of Sorek, which the Lord planted in Jeremiah, chosen and entirely true (Jer. II); but from the vineyard of Sodom. They also have oil, which they violently extract from the testimonies of the Old and New Scriptures, and promise it as a refreshment to deceived and weary minds; but the holy one detests it, and says: But the oil of the sinner will not anoint my head (Ps. CXL, 5). They also have various foods, namely, the multitude of various assumptions and various treatises, which, because they are written by the unclean, and have been uttered by an unclean mouth, whoever touches them will become unclean and be drawn into their error. Then Aggaeus replied, who knows the differences of festivals, and for that reason he obtained the name: Thus, this people and this nation, namely the Jews, and the Gentiles, and all heretics, in my sight, says the Lord: Everything they have done, whether they have offered it to me as vows for salvation, or for peace, or for sin, or for offense, or as a burnt offering, or as alms, or as fasting, or as self-control in food, or as bodily chastity, will be defiled in my sight. Although they may appear holy in their outward appearance, those things that are offered by such individuals are tainted because they have been touched by someone whose soul is defiled. Everything becomes polluted.

When this prophecy was uttered, about four years before the temple was finished, and sixty-eight after the former one was destroyed, it appears that some old men among the Jews were greatly dispirited on account of its being so much inferior in magnificence to that of Solomon. Compare Ezr 3:12. To raise the spirits of the people, and encourage them to proceed with the work, the prophet assures them that the glory of the second temple should be greater than that of the first, alluding perhaps to the glorious doctrines which should be preached in it by Jesus Christ and his apostles, Hag 2:1-9. He then shows the people that the oblations brought by their priests could not sanctify them while they were unclean by their neglect of the temple; and to convince them that the difficult times they had experienced during that neglect proceeded from this cause, he promises fruitful seasons from that day forward, Hag 2:10-19. The concluding verses contain a prediction of the mighty revolutions that should take place by the setting up of the kingdom of Christ under the type of Zerubbabel, Hag 2:20-23. As the time which elapsed between the date of the prophecy and the dreadful concussion of nations is termed in Hag 2:6, A Little While, the words may likewise have reference to some temporal revolutions then near, such as the commotions of Babylon in the reign of Darius, the Macedonian conquests in Persia, and the wars between the successors of Alexander; but the aspect of the prophecy is more directly to the amazing victories of the Romans, who, in the time of Haggai and Zechariah, were on the Very Eve of their successful career, and in the lapse of a few centuries subjugated the whole habitable globe; and therefore, in a very good sense, God may be said by these people to have shaken "the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;" and thus to have prepared the way for the opening of the Gospel dispensation. See Heb 12:25-29. Others have referred this prophecy to the period of our Lord's second advent, to which there is no doubt it is also applicable; and when it will be in the most signal manner fulfilled. That the convulsion of the nations introducing this most stupendous event will be very great and terrible, is sufficiently plain from Isaiah 34, Isa 35:1-10, as well as from many other passages of holy writ.

SECOND PROPHECY. The people, discouraged at the inferiority of this temple to Solomon's, are encouraged nevertheless to persevere, because God is with them, and this house by its connection with Messiah's kingdom shall have a glory far above that of gold and silver. (Hag 2:1-9) seventh month--of the Hebrew year; in the second year of Darius reign (Hag 1:1); not quite a month after they had begun the work (Hag 1:15). This prophecy was very shortly before that of Zechariah.

On the other hand, a legally "unclean" person imparts his uncleanness to any thing, whereas a legally holy thing cannot confer its sanctity on an "unclean" person (Num 19:11, Num 19:13, Num 19:22). Legal sanctity is not so readily communicated as legal impurity. So the paths to sin are manifold: the paths to holiness one, and that one of difficult access [GROTIUS]. One drop of filth will defile a vase of water: many drops of water will not purity a vase of filth [MOORE].

Glory of the New Temple, and the Blessings of the New Era - Haggai 2 This chapter contains three words of God, which Haggai published to the people in the seventh and ninth months of the second year of Darius, to strengthen them in their zeal for the building of the temple, and to preserve them from discouragement. The first of these words (Hag 2:1-9) refers to the relation in which the new temple would stand to the former one, and was uttered not quite four weeks after the building of the temple had been resumed.