HAGGAI (bag'ga-t),(Heb.';..0, khag-gah'ee, fes tive).
1. The Prophet. One of the twelve minor prophets, and the first of the three who, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile, prophesied in Palestine.
Of the place and year of his birth, his descent, and the leading incidents of his life, nothing is definitely known. He began to prophesy in the second year of Darius Hystaspes (Hag. i:i). To gether with Zechariah, Ile pressed vigorously the renewal of the building of the temple, which had been suspended after the reign of Cyrus, and ob tained the permission and assistance of the king (Ezra v vi :t4). Animated by the high courage of these devoted men, the people prosecuted the work with energy and the temple was completed and dedicated in the sixth year of Darius, B. C. 52o.
2. Haggai, Book of. These prophecies of Haggai are comprised in a book of two chapters and consist of discourses, brief and summary (Eichhorn, Einleitung das A. T., iii, sec. 598 ; Jahn, Introduction libros sacros liet. Fwd. edit.
2, Viennx, 1814, sec. t56). Their object generally is to urge the rebuilding of the Temple, which had indeed been commenced as early as B. C. 535 (Ezra iii :to), but was afterward discontin ued, the Samaritans having obtained an edict from the Persian king, which forbade further pro cedure, and influential Jews pretending that the time for rebuilding the Temple had not arrived, since the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah applied to the Temple also, from the time of the destruction of which it was then only the sixty-eighth year. As on the death of Pseudo Smerdis, and the consequent termination of his interdict, the Jews still continued to wait for the end of the seventy years, and were only engaged in building splendid houses for themselves, Hag gai began to prophesy in the second year of Darius (B. C. 52o).
His prophecy is divided as follows: ( t ) His first discourse (chap. i), delivered on the first day of the sixth month of the year mentioned, foretells that a brighter era would begin as soon as Jehovah's house was rebuilt ; and a notice is subjoined, stating that the address of the prophet had been effective, the people having resolved on resuming the restoration of the Temple. (2) The second discourse (chap. ii :1-9), delivered on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, predicts that the glory of the new Temple would be greater than that of Solomon's, and shows that no fear need be entertained of the Second Temple not equaling the first in splendor, since, in a remark able political revolution the gifts of the Gentiles would be brought thither. (3) The third dis
course (chap. ii :to-19), delivered on the twenty fourth day of the ninth month, refers to a period when building materials had been collected, and the. workmen had begun to put them together, for which a commencement of the Divine blessing is promised. (4) The fourth and last discourse (chap. ii :2o-23), delivered also on the twenty fourth day of the ninth month, is exclusively addressed to Zerubbabel, the political chief of the new Jewish colony, who, it appears, had asked for an explanation regarding the great politicll revolutions which Haggai had predicted in his second discourse ; it comforts the governor by assuring him they would not take place very soon and not in his lifetime.
(1) Style of Writer. The style of the dis courses of Haggai is suitable to their contents; It is pathetic when he exhorts; it is vehement when he reproves; it is somewhat elevated when he treats of future events, and it is not altogether destitute of a poetical coloring, though a prophet of a higher order would have depicted the splen dor of the second temple in brighter hues. The language labors under a poverty of terms, as may be observed in the constant repetition of the same expression.
(2) Scripture References. The prophetical discourses of Haggai are referred to in the Old and New Testament (Ezra v :t ; vi :14; Heb. xii: 26 ; comp. Hagg. ii :6, 7, 8. 22). In most ol the ancient catalogues of the canonical books of the Old Testament, Haggai is not, indeed, men tioned by name, but as they specify the twelve minor prophets, he must have been included among them, as otherwise their number would not be full. Josephus, mentioning Haggai and Zechariah (Antiq. xi :4, sec. 5, P. 557), calls them atio Tpooftrat, two firofthets. (See generally Ro senmuller, Scholia in Vet. Test. vii:4, p. 74; Jahn, Einleitung in die got/lichen Bucher des Alten Bundes, ii :2, p. 658; Bertholdt, Einleitung, iv, p. 169 ; Henry Cowles, Minor Prophets, N. T.; G. R. Noyes, New Trons. of the Heb. Prophets; J. Pye Smith, Scripture Testimony to the Mes siah, i, 283 ff.; Keil, /ntrod. to O. T.) G. H. A. v. E.