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Haggai


Text:  festive, one of the twelve so-called minor prophets. He was the 
first of the three (Zechariah, his contemporary, and Malachi, who was 
about one hundred years later, being the other two) whose ministry 
belonged to the period of Jewish history which began after the return 
from captivity in Babylon. Scarcely anything is known of his personal 
history. 

He may have been one of the captives taken to Babylon by 
Nebuchadnezzar. He began his ministry about sixteen years after the 
Return. The work of rebuilding the temple had been put a stop to 
through the intrigues of the Samaritans. After having been suspended 
for fifteen years, the work was resumed through the efforts of Haggai 
and Zechariah (Ezra 6:14), who by their exhortations roused the people 
from their lethargy, and induced them to take advantage of the 
favourable opportunity that had arisen in a change in the policy of 
the Persian government. (See DARIUS [2].) 

Haggai's prophecies have thus been characterized:, "There is a 
ponderous and simple dignity in the emphatic reiteration addressed 
alike to every class of the community, prince, priest, and people, 'Be 
strong, be strong, be strong' (2:4). 'Cleave, stick fast, to the work 
you have to do;' or again, 'Consider your ways, consider, consider, 
consider' (1:5, 7;2:15, 18). It is the Hebrew phrase for the 
endeavour, characteristic of the gifted seers of all times, to compel 
their hearers to turn the inside of their hearts outwards to their own 
view, to take the mask from off their consciences, to 'see life 
steadily, and to see it wholly.'", Stanley's Jewish Church. (See 
SIGNET.)