The Pulpit Commentary — Haggai — Section 4

EXPOSITION. previous reign (see Introduction, § I. : and OHAPTER I. comp. Ezra iv. 24). The sixth month, ac- Vera. 1-15.-Pe.rt I. THE F:rnll'l' An- cording to the sacred Hebrew ca.lendar, DRESS: EXHORTATION TO BUILD THE TEMPLE, which reckoned from Nise.n to Nisan. This would be Elul, answering to parts of our AND ITS RESULT. August and September. In the flnt day. Vera. 1--o.-§ 1. The people are reproved 'fhis was the regular festive.I of the new for their indifference with regard to the moon (Numb. x. 10; Isa. i. 13), and ,. erection of the temple, and admonished that fitting time to urge the building of the their present distress is a chastisement / or temple, without which it could not be duly celebrated. By; literally, by the hand ( as this negleot. in ver. 3), the instrument whom God used Ver. 1.-In the seoond year of Darius the (Exod. ix. 35 : J er. :u.xvti. 2; Hos. xii. king. This is Darius Hystaspes, who reigned 11 ; Acts vii. 35). Haggai the prophet ( see over Persia from B.O. 521 to B.O. 486. He the Introduction). Zerubbe.bel the son of is called in the inscriptions Daryavush, Shee.ltiel; Septne.gint, El,rbv ,rpos Zopo/3,ifJ,>.. which name means "Holder," or "Sup- Tbv Tov ::llaAa6,¾)>.., "Speak to Zorobabel the porter." Herodotus (vi. 98) exple.ins it as son of Se.lathiel." 'l'he temporal head of "Coeroer" (lp(,l71s). Hitherto the prophets the nation, the represente.ti ve of the royal have de.ted the time of the exercise of their ho111e of De.vid, and therefore with the hi~h office from the reigns of the legitimate priest jointly responsible for the present ~te Hebrew monarchs ; it shows a new state of of e.ffilis, e.nd he.ving power and authority things when they place e.t the head of their to amend it. The ne.me, as explained, and oracles the name of a foreign and e. heathen rightly, by St. Jerome, mee.ns, "Born in potentate. The Jews had, indeed, now no Be.bylon," e.ud intimates the truth concern- king of their own," the tabernaole of David iug his origin. He is called Sheshbazzar in had fallen" (A.mos ix. 11), e.nd they were Ezra i. 8; v. 14, which is either bis name e.t living on sufferance under an n.lien power. the Persian court, or is e.n erroneons tmns- They had returned from exile by permission literation for a synonymous word (see of Cyrus in the first year of his occupancy Kuabenb11uer, in loc.). The ne.me is found of the throne of Be.bylon sixteen years in the cuneiform inscription, as Zir-Babilu. before this time, e.nd had commenced to Shealtiel (or Se.le.thiel) means, "&keu of build the temple soon after; but the God." There is e. difficulty a.bout Zerub- opposition of neighbours, contradictory babel's parentage. Here and freq ueutly in orders from the Persian court, and their this book, e.nd in Ezra and Neliemiah, ,.s own lukewarmness he.d contributed to well 11s in Me.tt. i.12 e.nd Luke iii. 27, he is binder the work, e.ud it soon wholly ceased, called" son of Shee.ltiel ; " in 1 Chron. iii. 19 and remained suspended to the moment he is said to be the son of Pedaiah the when Haggai, as the seventy years of desola- brother of Salathiel. The truth probably tion drew to an end, we.a commissioned to is that he was by birth the son of Pedaiah, arouse them from their apathy, and to urge but by adoption or the law of the levirate, them to use the opportunity which was the son of Salathiel. He wo.s regarded e.11 11fl'orded by the acceHion of the new monarch the grandson of Jehoi11chi11, or Jeconiab. and the withdrawe.l of the vexatious inter- Oovemor (peohah). A foreign word, used dict that he.d checked their operatiens in the in 1 Kings x. 15, in Isaiah (uxvi. 9), 11,nJ HAGGAI, B  2 THE DOOK OF HAGGAI. [on. 1. 1-16.