Haggai’s Second Oracle (1:13–15)

Haggai, the Lord’s messenger (1:13). The use of “messenger” here is unusual, since the Hebrew term is not often used to refer to a prophet (Isa. 42:19 and 44:26 are two noteworthy parallel examples). In Jewish tradition, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are often grouped together. This pattern may be due in part to Haggai’s title here as well as Malachi’s statement that God is sending “my messenger” to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal. 3:1), so that these unusual terms frame the works of these three prophets.

From earliest Sumerian times well into the Hellenistic period, kings commemorated their building of temples at the command of deity. This plaque commemorates the foundation and inauguration of a shrine presided over by King Ur-Nanshe, the founder of the 1st Dynasty of Lagash.

Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre

I am with you (1:13). In the ancient Near East, it was common for prophets to encourage the king in fulfilling important religious duties such as building temples.4

Twenty-fourth day of the sixth month (1:15). In comparing the opening date formula (1:1) with this date, it appears the community actually acted on Haggai’s message within three weeks. This suggests a fairly quick response to Haggai’s word on the part of the community leadership since allocating resources and budgeting for building materials would normally take some time.

Haggai’s Third Oracle (2:1–9)

Twenty-first day of the seventh month (2:1). This date formula places this next prophetic message nearly two months after the opening oracle (1:1). What follows seems to presume some progress in resuming work on the temple as the result of Haggai’s earlier pronouncements.

Who of you is left … ? (2:3). Those who may have seen the temple prior to its destruction by the Babylonians would be few in number since some sixty-seven years have passed to this point in the narrative. The question may be intended as a rhetorical point: No one is able to compare the previous temple with the one under construction.

I will once more shake (2:6). The Hebrew expression for “once more” is unusual. Some think it conveys more of a sense of immediacy, something like “in just a bit.” The shaking is a typical expression in the ancient Near East for a manifestation of the deity. For example, in a Canaanite text the god Baal appears:

Baal gives forth his holy voice,

Baal repeats the utterance of his lips,

His holy voice shatters the earth.

At his roar the mountains quake.5

Baal Epic CTA 2 with account of Baal responding to Yamm’s challenge

Rama/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre

This same image finds its use throughout the Bible (e.g., Ps. 77:18; Jer. 10:10; 51:29). The connection of this expression with a manifestation of God, combined with Haggai’s mention of the Exodus in the previous verse, points toward the prophet’s making a deliberate parallel to the self-disclosure of God to Israel at Sinai (Ex. 19). So the “once more” is making a parallel between what God did for Israel at Sinai and what he will do for the postexilic community.