The Pulpit Commentary — Haggai — Section 24

1he Authorized Version, bnt not so intel- no good work, bnt sought only ho'I\P lo ligible. "Soul" (neph~~h) ia need to mel\n obte.in sordid gain. And ye regarded with n person. l\nd, with tbc- attribute "del\d" hatred those whl:l reproved you, who sitting undel"!ltood, e. corpse-, as Lev. xxi. I. The e.t the ga.te spe.ke words of wisdom to l\ll full phre.se is found in Numb. vi. 6, 11. who pa!!sed by. The passage is found in C,ontaot with R dead body produced the no other ver~ion. pnvesl ceremonial uncleanness, which Ver. 15.-The prophet bids the people lnstcd seven days, and could be purged look backwards, a.nd consider how their onlv br e. double lustration and other rites neltlect had heeu visited by ec11nty harvests: (Ki1mb. xix. 11, etc.). This uncleanness their own experience would tench them th_ia was dot1btlese oonnecfod wit.h the idea that lesson. From this day; viz. the twenty~ death was the result of sin. Any of these. fourth day of the ninth month, when thiil The things mentioned in the preceding nddress wns delivered (ver. 10: comp. ver. verse. It shall be unclean. In accordance 18). And upward; i.e. backward. He bids with Numb. xix. 22. A polluted human them go back in thought fourteen years being commnuicated his pollution to all when they first intermitted building. that he touched. It ·was owing to the Before a stone, etc. This does not mee._n de.filcment that accompanied oontact with before the building was first begun, but the dead that the later Jews used to whiten before they began to build on the foundation tl,e sepulch1·es every year, that they might already laid. ' be seen and a,oi,lcd (Matt. xxili. 27, and Ver. 16.-Since those days were. The Li11;htfoot, 'Hor. Hehr.; in foe.). word" days'' is supplied. Reviseid Version, Ver. 14.-Then answered Haggai, and " through an that time," viz. the fourteen said ; then Haggai continued and said. He years spoken of in ver.15. Septuagint, .,.[r1;, applies the principles just enunciated to ~.,.,, "what ye were;" the Vu1gate omits the case of the Jews, taking the comm:tl.ni- the words. When one oame to an heap of cation of uncleanness first. So is this people. twenty measures. The word'' measures" is Kot, n,y peopl,e, bPcanse by their acts they not in the Hebrew: it is supplied by the had disowned God (eh. i. 2). This people LXX., ud-ra (equivalent 1o sealis), and by is defiled in my sight like one who has Jerome, modiorum. But the particular touched a corpse, and not only they them- measure is of no importance; it is the pro- scl ves, but so is every work of their hanll.s; portion only on which stress' is· 1aid. '.rhe all their labom, all that they put their prophet particularizes the ·general state- hancis to, is unclean, and can win no ments of eh. i. 6, 9. The "heap" is the blessing. Their pollution was their dis- collection of sheaves (Ruth iii. 7). • Thie ohedience in not building the ho115e of God. ·when threshed yielded only half that they They kid ce.lmly contemplated the lifeless had expected. There were (in fact) but'te:il; symbol of the theocracy, the ruined temple, «al lylv,.,.o «p,Bi), Bl«a u&.,.a, ••·and there were and made no determined effort to resuscitate ten measures of barley." The press-fat; !he it, so a bliglit had rested on all their work. wine-fat, the vat into which flowed the juice Thnt which they offer there (pointing to the forced from the grapes when trodden out by altar which they had built when they first the feet in the press. A fnll accou11 t of this returned, Ezra iii. 2) is llllCleaI!.. They will be found in the· ' Diet. of the Bible,' bad fancied that the sanctifying influence arts. " Wine-press" and " Wine." Fifty of tbe altnr and its sacrifices wonld extend vessels out- of the press. The Hebrew is to all their works, and cover all their short- "fifty purali," The word purali is used in comings; but .o far from this, their very Isa. l.xili. 3 to signify the "press" itself, offerings were unclean, becall.Se the offerers hence the Authorized Version ~o translates ·were polluted. They who come before the it here, inserting "out of," and supplyfog Hoh· One should themselves be holy. "vessels," as "rnensuree" above; but it Neither the altar nor the Holy Land 1,robably here denotes a liquid measure in imparted sanctity by any intrinsic virtue of which the wine was drawn. LXX., µ•-rp71-ri£is their own, but entailed u11on all an obliga- (equivalent to Hebrew batha). Jerome, 1ion to perso11al holiness (Worchiworth ). The la,yeuas; and in his commentary, amphuras. LXX. has an addition at the end of the They came and examined the grapes mid verse, •EveKEJ/ -rWv >..11µ,/J,O,-rwv airrWv .,,.wv expected fifty purahs, "press-measures," op0p,vwv, o511v11Bh.-ov-ra., a,ro wpa,nfnrou wov,,w but they did not get even half th11t tliey airTWv, Y.al Eµuie7Tf lv w'DAa.ts E>-..frxov-ras, had hoped. There were but twenty. Kuabon- "On account of their morning gains [or, baner suggests that the meaning moy be- 'Lm<leus 'J tlley shall be pained in the looking at the crop of grapes, they expected prrase1,ce of tueir le.Lours, au<l ye hated to <lraw out, i.e. empty (chasaph), the press tl,0sr, wLo reproved in tl:e 6 ates." Thie is fifty times, but were egregiously deceived. c>:1,r,u•,d(;d bv 'I'Leodorel thus: As soon as Ver. 17.-I smote you with blasting rmd 1110,:i;ng duw~r;d ye ewployr,d ycnrsd1·cs in with r:iilrlew. lt wos Ood who inflicted OB, II, 1-23.] THE BOOK OF HAGG.A.I. 23