a word · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
by
בְּיַדbe.yad-
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct
Haggai
חַגַּ֥יcha.Gai
H2292
Chaggai · proper noun, a man's name
prophet
הַנָּבִ֖יאha.na.Vi'
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
saying
לֵאמֹֽרle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezra 5:1 Then the prophets, Haggai the prophet, and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied unto the Jews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name…
Zechariah 1:1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the proph…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Haggai 1:1-11
It was the complaint of the Jews in Babylon that they saw not their signs, and there was no more prophet (Psa 74:9), which was a just judgment upon them for mocking and misusing the prophets. We read of no prophets they had in their return, as they had in their coming out of Egypt, Hos 12:13. God stirred them up immediately by his Spirit to exert themselves in that escape (Ezr 1:5); for, though God makes use of prophets, he needs them not, he can do his work without them. But the lamp of Old Testament prophecy shall yet make some bright and glorious efforts before it expire; and Haggai is the first that appears under the character of a special messenger from heaven, when the word of the Lord…
the Lord of hosts--Jehovah, Lord of the powers of heaven and earth, and therefore requiring implicit obedience.
This people--"This" sluggish and selfish "people." He does not say, My people, since they had neglected the service of God.
The time--the proper time for building the temple. Two out of the seventy predicted years of captivity (dating from the destruction of the temple, 558 B.C., Kg2 25:9) were yet unexpired; this they make their plea for delay [HENDERSON]. The seventy years of captivity were completed long ago in the first year of Cyrus, 536 B.C. (Jer 29:10); dating from 606 B.C., Jehoiakim's captivity (Ch2 36:6). The seventy years to the completion of the temple (Jer 25:12) w…
The time is not come - They thought that the seventy years spoken of by Jeremiah were not yet completed, and it would be useless to attempt to rebuild until that period had arrived. But Abp. Usher has shown that from the commencement of the last siege of Jerusalem unto this time, precisely sixty-nine years had been completed.
John Gill on Haggai 1:3
Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet,.... This is a second prophecy, distinct from the former; that was delivered to the two governors, setting forth the sentiments and language of the people concerning the building of the temple, which was left with them to consider how just it was; but this is sent to the people themselves, expostulating with them about the folly and ingratitude of it:
saying; as follows:
The Church Fathers
(Verse 3) And the word of the Lord came by the hand of the prophet Haggai, saying: Is it time for you to dwell in paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Or as the Septuagint interprets, 'in vaulted buildings,' that is, concave structures. On the same day as before, this vision appears again. As the prophets engage in their work, the gifts of prophecy also increase, and after a brief silence, in response to what the people had said - that it is not yet time to rebuild the house of the Lord - the Lord's answer, as if thought out, is presented to them, and it is said to them: So is it not time for you to dwell in houses while you are down below and situated in the valley, and for my house, which is on the mountain, to remain in ruins? Or, as it is stated in Hebrew: that you may dwell in houses, adorned and arranged not so much for practical use as for pleasure, and my dwelling place where the holy of holies, the cherubim, and the table of showbread were kept, will be soaked by rain, become desolate, and scorched by the sun? Moreover, according to the anagoge: Every time that the habitation of the valley is chosen, or we serve pleasures, is troublesome. Hence, even the Stoics, who are concerned with defining individual words, said that time is the measure of correction or efficacy: which is expressed more significantly in Greek as χρόνον εἶναι κατορθώσεως. For every moment in which we serve not by virtues, but by vices, is lost, and is considered as though it never happened. Therefore, if anyone among us dwells in a valley, or builds their own house in worldly pleasure and luxury, they do not build a temple for God, nor does the Lord have a place to rest his head. And when they build a house with foxes, the dwelling place of God becomes deserted.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Temple, The Second · The Jews reproved for not building — The Jews reproved for not building
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Haggai 1:2-4
Haggai 1:2-4
2. Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built.
2. Sic dicit Iehova exercituum, dicendo, Populus isti dicunt (hoc est, dicit,) Non venit tempus domui Iehovae ad aedificandum.
3. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
3. Et datus fui sermo Iehovae in manu Chaggai Prophetae, dicendo,
4. Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?
4. An tempus vobis, ut habitatis vos in domibus vestris tabulatis, et domus haec deserta?
They who think that seventy years had not passed until the reign of Darius, may from this passage be easily dispro…
The word of Jehovah is opposed in Hag 1:4 to this speech of the people; and in order to give greater prominence to the antithesis, the introductory formula, "The word of Jehovah came by Haggai the prophet thus," is repeated in Hag 1:3. In order to appeal to the conscience of the people, God meets them with the question in Hag 1:4 : "Is it time for you yourselves to live in your houses wainscoted, whilst this house lies waste?" The ה before עת is not the article, but ה interr. אתּם is added to strengthen the pronoun (cf. Ges. 121, 3). Sephūnı̄m without the article is connected with the noun, in the form of an apposition: in your houses, they being wainscoted, i.e., with the inside walls cove…
Lord of Heaven’s Armies: Haggai’s and Zechariah’s favorite expression for God emphasizes the invincible power behind God’s word. The Lord can call on infinite numbers of heavenly troops to carry out his will at a moment’s notice (2 Kgs 6:17; Matt 26:53). This thought was intended to encourage the Judeans, who felt helpless and insignificant. • The time has not yet come: Poor crop yields from drought and pestilence had so weakened Judah’s economy (Hag 1:6, 9-11) that the people thought they could not afford to rebuild the Temple. Haggai convinced them they could not afford to leave the Temple in ruins, for God would not bless and prosper them if they did not rebuild the Lord’s house (1:4, 7-8…
This people has said Since their enemies stopped them the first time, they think that I will not fulfill My words that I said, (Dan. 9:2) “According to the completion of seventy years from the destruction of Jerusalem”; and that the time for the House to be rebuilt will never come. Say to them that now the time has come, but the first time was only a remembrance at the completion of the seventy years from the inception of the kingdom of Babylon. And so it was that at the end of seventy years they were remembered for going up by the sanction of Cyrus; but the [time for the] building of the House depended upon [counting from] the destruction of Jerusalem, which took place eighteen years later…
