The Pulpit Commentary — Haggai — Section 5

frequent.ly in Ezra. Nc•hemiah. and Esther, thRt the Persians were ad verse to the fo denote an inferior satrap or subordinate undertaking; that the unfruitful senson governor. StrR••maier (ap. Knabenbauer) rendered them unable to engo.ge in suoh o. notes that in Assyrian the word is found greRt work; and that the very fRot of these in the form pac/m, tllftt piehatu means " a difficulties existing showed that God did pro'lince," pachat, "a district." It seems not favour the design. natural. thou£:h probably erroneous, to con- Ver. 3.-Then oame the word of the Lord, nect. it with the Turkish pasbah. But see etc. The formula of ver. 1 is repeated to the <li•~nssion on the word in Pusey,• Daniel give more effeot to the Lord's answer to the tbe Prophet,' p. 566, etc. Instead of lame excuses for inaotion, This emphnsis by "Govornor of Juda.Ii," the LXX. here and repeiition is common thro~hout the hook. T<'r. 12 and ob. ii. 2 reads," of the tribe of Ver. 4.-For you, 0 ye_; for you, your- Judah." One of the house of David has 11elves; such as ye are (see Zech. vii. 5). the i.overnment. but the foreign title applied He appeals to their consoiences. You oon to him shows t.bat he holds authority only make yourselves comfortable; you have as tl.ie deputy of an olie11 power. Judah time and means o.nd iudustry to expen\\ on was henceforward applied to the whole your own privat.e interests, and ce.n you country. The prophecy in Gen. xlix:. 10 look with indifference on the house of God still held good. Joshu&. The highest lying waste? Your oieled houses; your spiritual officer (Ezra iii. 2, 8; iv. S). This houses, and those cieled-wainsooted and Joshue.., Jehoshua., Jeshue., aa he is ve.riously roofed with costly .woods (1 Kings vii. 3, 7; called, we.s e. son of J08edech who, in the Jer, mi. 14), perhaps with the very cedar time of Nebuchadnezzar, had been carried provided for the rebuil,;Hng of the temple capti,e to Babylon (l Chron, vi. 15), and (Ezra iii. 7). Septuagint, iv ot,ms ~µi,,v granclson of that Seraia.h who, with other ,co,>-.o<T.-cf.8µo,s, " your vaulted houses," or, prince;; of Judah, was slain at Riblah by as St. Cyril explains, "houses whose- door- the Babylonia.us (2 Kings :a:v. 18, etc.). posts were elaborately adorned with em- The parentage of Zerubbabel and Joshua. is blems and devices." They had, naught specially mentioned to show that the former of the feeling of David (2 Se.m. vii. 2), ."I wa, of the house of David and the latter dwell in on house of cedar, but the ark of of the family of .Aaron, and that even in. God dwelleth within curtains." • its depressed condition Israel retained its Ver. 5.-Consider ; literally,. set .. yQ'll,r rightful constitution (see note on Zech. heart upon (so ver. 7; oh. ii. 15, 18). Your iii. 1). ways. What ye have done, what ye have Ver. 2.-The Lard of hosts. Haggai, as suffered, your present projects, and the opn- the other prophets., always .uses this formula sequences thereof. , in enunciating Jtis messages (see note on Ver. 6.-Their laboure,for yea,rs past had Amos ix. 5). Trochon justly remarks that le.eked the Divine blessing. Though they this ex:pression is not found in the earlier had fine houses to lilfell i.J;i, they bad been books of the Bible-the Pente.teuch, Joshua, visited with scanty . harvests an.d w~k and Judges. If these books were oon- bodily health, Ye have sown ~u11;ti, a11,d icruporary with the prophets, the phre.se bring in little; , .but ·to bring in litlle would certainly occur in them (see a (Hebrew), . And thit1 infinitive absolute is valuable note in the Appendix to Arch- continued in th11. following clauses, giving deacon Perowne's Commentary on Haggai, remarkable force , io the words, and ex- in 'The Cambridge Bible for Schools'), pressing an, lui.1!itual result. We see from Thls people; popul"'8 iste (Vulgate), with eh. ii 15--17 that these unfruitful seasons some contempt, e.s if they were no longer had visited them during all the continuanoe worthv to l.,e called the Lord's people of their negligence (Deut. :x:xviiL 38). But (eh. iL 14). It looks as if they bad often ye have not enough. 'fhe food which they before been admonished to proceed with the ate did not satisfy them; their bodies were work, and had this answer ready. The sickly and derived no strength from the time is not come; lirerall y, it is Mt time to food which they took (Lev. :x.xvi. 26; Hos. co1,w (comp. Gen. ii. 5), whkh is explained iv. 10) or from the wine which they drank Lv th" new clause, the time that the Lord's (oee note on Micah vi. 14). But there is house should be bnilt. The versions shorten none warm. Perhaps the winters were un- tl,e ~entence, rendering," the time for build- usually rigorous, or their in.firm health ing the Lord's house ha,; not come." The ex- wade their usual clothing insufficient to cuse for their inaction may have had various maintain their bodily heat. To put it into grounds. They may have said, reckoning a bag with holes. A proverbial saying. The froru tl,c final destruction of Jerusalem money gained by the hired labourer (B.c. 58G), that tbe seventy years' captivity vanished as if he had never had it, and left wf,s 110t complete; that th8re we.s still no trace uf benefit. Comp. Pl.a.ut., • Pseudol.,' d ..w;;u rr,,w 1hr: ncigbl,ouriog population; i. 3. 150- Cl!, J, 1-15,] THE BOOK OF HAGGAI.