Haggai encourages the Jewish exiles (returning from Babylonian captivity) to rebuild the temple for YHWH as their first priority. The new temple, he says, will surpass the old in its glory (2.6-9). Furthermore, YHWH will soon destroy the foreign kingdoms with their kings, chariots, and horses (2.21-22), and at that time YHWH will take Zerubbabel (grandson of King Jehoiachin of Judah and, thus, a descendent of David) to be his chosen one, his signet ring – i.e. the king-messiah (2.23). The call to rebuild the temple and the purely political messianism hinted at in Haggai continue the themes of the previous prophets.
· Hag 1.1. In the second year of King Darius[2], [520 bce] on the first day of the sixth month, the word of YHWH came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshuaa son of Jehozadak, the high priest.
· Hag 2.5-12: 5. Now this is what YHWH of armies says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” 7. This is what YHWH of armies says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says YHWH. 9. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares YHWH of armies. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. 10. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the land (ha eretz) its crops. 11. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.” 12. Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of YHWH their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because YHWH their God had sent him. And the people feared YHWH.
· 1.14-15: So YHWH stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of YHWH of armies, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of King Darius. [520 bce]
· 2.7-9: 7. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says YHWH of armies. 8. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares YHWH of armies. 9. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says YHWH of armies. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares YHWH of armies.”
· 2.20-23: 20. The word of YHWH came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: 21. “Tell Zerubbabel governor of Judah that I will shake the heavens and the land (ha eretz). 22. I will overturn royal thrones and shatter the power of the foreign kingdoms. I will overthrow chariots and their drivers; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother. 23. “‘On that day,’ declares YHWH of armies, ‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares YHWH, ‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’ declares YHWH of armies.”
[2] Darius (r. 522-486 bce), 3rd major King of the Persian Empire, after Cyrus the Great [559-530] and Cambyses II [530-522] and a brief interlude. He is the same King who authorized the first invasion of Greece, which was repelled at Marathon in 490 bce. His son Xerxes led the second Persian invasion of Greece, which witnessed the famous battle of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, the Battle of Salamis, and the Battle of Plataea. These stories are found in the Histories of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, often called the "father of history."