The Pulpit Commentary — Haggai — Section 6

"In pert11•11~ ing;;rimus dicte. dolium ; of the house of God, wb ilo yo haste with all opemm l11d1mus. diligence to your own houses for business or plea.sure, being entirely absorbed in VorR. 7-ll.-§ 2. 17~ prophet urgeB the • worldly interests, or eager only to adorn people to worlc zsalouBly at the bu,ilding; <mly and beautify your own habitations. Or, your thuB could they hope for the removal of their zeal is .a.II expended on your own private 7,re~ent diBastel'B. dwellings. Ver. 10.-0ver you. This would be a. Ver. 7.-(See note on ver. 5.) The reference to Dent. xxviii. 23. But the pre- ropotition of the co.11 to reflection is needed position is probably not loca.l, bot means ( comp, Phil. iii. I). Former experience rather, "on your account," i.e. on account opens the we.y to the injunction in ver. 8. of your sin, as Ps. xliv. 22. This is not Ver. 8.-Go up to the mounta.in. The hill- tautological after the preceding" therefore," country in the neighbourhood of Jerusa.lcm, but more closely defines and expln.ins the whence by their own persona.I exertions they illative. Is stayed from dew; hrith stayed might procure ma.teria.l for the building. itself from dew; withholds not only rain, bot The temple mount is certa.inly not meant, o.s even dew (comp. Zech. viii. 12). On the if they were to bring wood from it. Nor co.n importance of clew in the climate of Palestine, Lebo.non be intended, as in Ezra. iii. 7; for see note on Mieah v. 7. The dews gene- the injunction looks to e.n immediate actual rally are remarkably heavy, and in the result, and in their depressed ci.rcn.m- summer months take the place of rain. Dr. ste.nces they were scarcely likely to interest Thomson speaks of the dew rolling in the the Sidonia.ns and Tyrie.ns to provide cedar morning off his tent like rain (' Laud and for them. There we.a abundance of wood the Book,' p. 491). The earth is sta.yed close e.t hand, and the" king's forest" (Neh. from her fruit ; hath stayed her fruit; ac- ii. 8) was in the immediate neighbourhood cording to the threat (Deut. xi. 17). of Jerusalem. There is no mention of atone, Ver. 11.-I called for a drought. So probably because the foundations had long Elisha says (2 Kings viii. 1) that" the Lord been le.id, aud the ruins of the old temple bath called for a. famine." There is a. play supplied material for the new one; and. of words in the Hebrew : as they had let the indeed, stone was to be had in e.bunde.uce Lord's houselie "waste" (chareb)(vers. '1,9), everywhere; or it may be that the prophet so the Lord punished them with "-drought" na.mes merely one opening for their renewed (choreb). The Septuagint and Syriac, point- activity, as e. specimen of the work required ing differently, translate this last word from them. Not costly offerings were de- "sword," but this is not suitable for the sired, but a willing mind. I will be glori- context, which speaks of the sterility of the :11.ed; I will glorify •myself by showering land only. The land, in contradistinction blessings oil the house and the people, so to the mountains, is the plain country. that the Hebrews themselves and their Nothing anywhere wRs spared. All the neighbours may own that I am among them labour of the hands (Ps. c::uviii. 2, etc.). (comp.Exod.xiv. 4; Lev.x. 3; Isa. lxvi. 5). All that they had elfected by long and Ver. 9.--'He shows the real co.use of the wearisome toil in the corn-field, the vine- ee.lnmities that had befallen them. Ye yard, eto. (comp. Hos. ii. 9; Joel i. 10). looked for muoh, and, lo, it came to little. Emphatio infinitive, as in ver. 6. "To look Vers.12-15.-§ 3. The appeal meets ioill. for much, and behold I little." They fixed respect and attention, and for a time the their expeotations upon a rich harvest, 1md people apply themselves diligently to the work. they reaped less than they had sown (Isa. v. 10). And when they had stored this Ver. 12.-All the remnant of the people miserahlo crop in their barns, I did blow (eh. ii. 2); i.e. the people who had returned upon it; or, did blow it away (,(e4>~u11ua, from the Captivity, who are technically Septuagint), dissipated it as if it were named "the remn;UJt" as being only a mere chaff, so that it perished. Doubtless, small portion of all Israel (Isa. x. 21, 22 ; as Dr. Pusey observes, they asoribed the Zech. viii. 6; Micali ii. 12). Others, not meagreness of their orops to nature.I causes, so suita.bly, understand by the expression, and would not see the judioial uature of the all the people beside the chiefs (ver. H). infliotion. The prophet brings the truth Obeyed; rather, listened unto. Tile active home to their consoieuce by the stern q ues- obedience is n,irrated in ver. 14. And the tion, Why l And he answers the question words. The prophet's words a.re the voice for them, speaking with God's authority. of the Lord; and the people heeded the :Beoause of mine house that is waste. The message which the Lord had commissioned reason already given in ver. 4, eto., is him to give. Did fear. They showed that repeated an<l euforced. And(while)ye run. true religion which the Bible calls "the Ye are iudiffcront to tho misemble condition fea.r of the Lord." They se.w their faults, 4 THE BOOK OF HAGGAI. [CH, I, 1-lf:,