Haggai 2:10-19

In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

Sacrifices without obedience (in respect to God's command to build the temple) could not sanctify. Now that they are obedient, God will bless them, though no sign is seen of fertility as yet.

Verse 10. In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month - three days more than two months from the second prophecy (); in the month Chisleu, the lunar one about the time of our December. The Jews seem to have made considerable progress in the work in the interval (Haggai 2:15).

Verse 11. Ask now the priests - propose this question to them on the law. The priests were the authorized expounders of the law (; ; ; ).

Verse 12. If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread ... shall it be holy? And the priests answered ... No. "Holy flesh" (i:e., the flesh of a sacrifice, ), indeed, makes holy the "skirt" in which it is carried: but that "skirt" cannot impart its sanctity to anything beyond, as "bread," etc. (). This is cited to illustrate the principle, that a sacrifice, holy, as enveloping divine things (just as the "skirt" is "holy" which envelopes "holy flesh") cannot, by its inherent or, opus operatum, intrinsic efficacy, make holy a person whose disobedience, as that of the Jews while neglecting God's house, made him unholy.

Verse 13. If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered ... It shall be unclean. On the other hand, a legally "unclean" person imparts his uncleanness to anything, whereas a legally holy thing cannot confer its sanctity on an "unclean" person (; ; ). Legal sanctity is not so readily communicated as legal impurity. So the paths to sin are manifold: the path 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 purify a vase of filth (Moore).

Verse 14. Then answered Haggai - "answered" is not merely here used in the general sense, 'continued the discourse,' but with particular reference to the second reply of the priests in , "Then Haggai answered (in rejoinder to the priests' answer) and said." So is this people ... and so is every work of their hands. Heretofore not in such an obedient state of mind as to deserve to be called my people (). Here he applies the two cases just stated. By case first, "this people" is not made "holy" by their offerings "there" (namely, on the altar built in the open air, under Cyrus, ). Though the ritual sacrifice can ordinarily sanctify outwardly so far as it reaches (), as the "holy flesh" sanctified the "skirt," yet it cannot make the offerers, in their persons and all their works (answering to the "bread, pottage, wine, or oil," ), acceptable to God, because lacking the spirit of obedience (), so long as they neglected to build the Lord's house. On the contrary, by case second, they made "unclean" their very offerings by being unclean through "dead works" (disobedience), just as the person unclean by contact with a dead body imparted his uncleanness to all that he touched (cf. ). This all applies to them as they heretofore had been, not as they at present are, now that they have begun to obey: the design is to guard them against falling back again. 'That indeed is holy which is offered on the altar; but the man who offers it is not so much rendered holy by his offerings as he is rendered unclean by neglecting the ordinances of God' (and by his disobedience to God). (Rosenmuller.)

And that which they offer there is unclean. The "there" points to the altar, probably in view of the audience which the prophet addressed.

Verse 15. And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward - literally, lay it to heart. Ponder earnestly, retracing the past upward (i:e., backward, comparing what evils heretofore befell you, before ye set about this work, with the present time, when you have again commenced it, and when, in consequence, I now engage to 'bless you.' Hence, ye may perceive the evils of disobedience and the blessing of obedience.

Verse 16. Since those days were - from the time that those days of your neglect of the temple work have been.

When one came to an heap of twenty measures, there were but ten - i:e., to a heap which he had expected would be 1 of 20 measures, there were only 10 mesures.

When one came to the press-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty. As the Septuagint translates (meetreetees) 'measure,' and the Vulgate 'a flagon,' and as we should rather expect vat than press, Maurer translates [puwraat] (omitting vessels, which is not in the original) 'plurals,' or 'wine-measures.' From the original meaning, wine-press (), the word came to mean the measure in which the wine was drawn out of the press.

Verse 17. I smote you with blasting and with mildew ... yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord. Appropriated from , whose canonicity is thus sealed by Haggai's inspired authority; in the last clause, "turned," however, has to be supplied, its omission marking, by the elliptical abruptness ('yet ye not to me!') God's displeasure. Compare '(let him come) unto me!' Moses in excitement omitting the bracketed words (). "Blasting" results from excessive drought; "mildew," from excessive moisture.

Verse 18. Consider now from this day and upward. Resumed from , after Haggai 2:16, that the blessing in may stand in the more marked contrast with the curse in Haggai 2:16. Affliction will harden the heart, if not referred to God as its author (Moore).

From the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid. The first foundation beneath the earth had been long ago laid, after the altar had been set up (; ), in the second year of Cyrus, 535 BC (), on the year after that of the return from Babylon; the foundation now laid was the secondary one, which, above the earth, was laid on the previous work (Tirinus). Or translate, 'From this day on which the temple is being begun,' namely, on the foundations long ago laid (Grotius). But these are forced explanations. Not only were the foundations laid long before the 24th day of the 9th month, the second year of Darius, but some of the superstructure. Maurer translates, 'Consider ... from the four and twentieth day ... to (the time which has elapsed) from the day on which the foundation ... was laid' - i:e., Consider the time that has elapsed between the present day (the 24th day of the 9th month) and the former time, namely, the day of the first foundation of the temple.

The Hebrew [lªmin, see Hebrew, ; ; ] supports the English version. I think the intervening period between the two points of time is contemplated, starting from the day in which Haggai speaks (the 24th day of the 9th month), and going 'upward' or backwards, and also "from the day that the foundation of the temple was (first) laid," and going downward or forward, so that the interval between those two starting points, with its attendant blessings, is what Haggai asks them to "consider" (literally, apply their heart or mind to). Before this 24th day they had not prosecuted the work which they had long ago begun, as Haggai implies, with due diligence. On this 24th day they began to work in thorough earnest. Therefore the promise of the blessing from this day follows in . The "work" which "they came and did in the house of the Lord of hosts" () was probably a mere collecting of wood, stones, and materials for the work; they do not seem to have persevered in the work, as Haggai's reproof here implies.

Verse 19. Is the seed yet in the barn? - implying, It is not. It has been already sown this month, and there are no more signs of its bearing a good crop, much less of its being safely stored in the barn, than there were in the past season, when there was such a failure; yet I promise to you from this day (emphatically marking by the repetition the connection of the blessing with the day of their obedience) a blessing in an abundant harvest. So also the vine, etc., which heretofore have borne little or nothing, shall be blessed with productiveness. Thus it will be made evident that the blessing is due to me, not to nature. We may trust God's promise to bless us, though we see no visible sign of its fulfillment ().