Haggai 2:1

CHAPTER II

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 Ezra 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, 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, 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, 20-23.

As the time which elapsed between the date of the prophecy and

the dreadful concussion of nations is termed in Haggai 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 Hebrews 12:25.

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 xxxiv., xxxv., as well as from

many other passages of holy writ.

NOTES ON CHAP. II

Verse Haggai 2:1. In the seventh month] This was a new message, and intended to prevent discouragement, and excite them to greater diligence in their work.