HAGGAI (n_11 ; Sept. and Joseph. 'A7-ymos Terome and Vulg. Aggams or Aggeus, otherwis, -1Iagganes), one of the twelve minor prophets, an( the first of the three who, after the return of th, Jews from the Babylonian exile, prophesied Palestine. Of the place and year of his birth his descent, and the leading incidents of his lifc nothing is known which can be relied on. Som assert that he was born in Babylon, and came t1 Jerusalem when Cyrus, in the year B. C. 536, al lowed the Jews to return to their country (2 Chron xxxvi. 23 ; Ezra i. 1),—the new colony consistinl chiefly of people belonging to the tribes of Judah Benjamin, and Levi, with a few from other tribes. [From ch. ii. 2 Ewald conjectures that Hag-ga may have been of the number of those who ha, seen the farmer temple ; and Havernick, Keil, an, acccpt this as not improbable.] The mor fabulous traditions of Jewish writers, who pass hir for an Assessor of the Synagaga Magna, an, enlarge on his literary avocations, have been col lected by Carpzov (Introductio in V. T. iii. p. 426; [ Jerome (Comment. ad Agg. r) says that some resting on the words ;TV -it6n (i. 13), hel Haggai to have been really an angel doketicall incarnate.] This much appears from his prophE cies, that he flourished during the reign of th Persian monarch Darius Hystaspis, who ascende the throne B.C. 521. These prophecies are corn prised in a book of two chapters, and consist c discourses so brief and summary as to have led som German theologians to suspect that they have nc come down to us in their original complete forrr but are only an epitome (Eichhorn, Emleitung i das A. T. iii. sec. 598 ; Jahn, Introductio in libre sacros Vet. Pia., edit. 2, Viennm 1814, sec. 156; Their object generally is to urge the rebuilding c the Temple, which had indeed been commence as early as B. C. 535 (Ezra iii. Jo), but was after wards discontinued, the Samaritans having obtained an edict from the Persian king which forbade further procedure, and influential Jews pretending that the time for rebuilding the Temple had not arrived, since the seventy years predicted by Jere miah 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, Haggai began to prophesy in the second year of Darius, B. C. 520.
[In the LXX. the name of Haggai occurs along with that of Zechariah in the inscriptions of Ps. cxxxvii., cxlv.-cxlviii. ; in the Vulg. the same names are prefixed to Ps. cxi. and Ps. cxlv. ; and in the Syr. thcy are prefixed to Ps. cxxv., Ps. cxxvi., and Ps. cxlv.-cxlviii. The purport of this is not that these prophets were the authors of the psalms in question, but only that they introduced them into the service of the Temple, or specially adapted them to the circumstances of the people at the time, or themselves conducted the chanting of them in the service. This last view is favoured by the statement of the Pseudo-Epiphanius (De Vit. Proph.), that Haggai himself first sung a IIalle lujah, which is interpreted Praise ye the Living God, and Amen, which is, Be it, Be it ; wherefore, he adds, we say Hallelujah, which is, the hymn of Haggai and Zechariah.' The writer cannot intend by this that Haggai and Zechariah introduced the word Hallelujah into the Psalms ; he can only mean that in singing the Hallelujah Psalms these prophets in some way took the lead (Carpzov, Introd. in
Libb. V. T. ii. 4, 23; Hamaker, Commentatio Libellum de Vitis Proph. 207.] His first discourse (ch. i.), delivered on the first day of the sixth month of the year mentioned, fore tells that a brighter era would begin as soon as Jehovah's house was rebuilt ; and a notice is sub joined, stating that the address of the prophet had been effective, the people having resolved on re suming the restoration of the Temple. The second discourse (ch. ii. r-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 enter tained of the Second Temple not equalling the first in splendour, since, in a remarkable political revo lution, the gifts of the Gentiles would be brought thither. The third discourse (ch. ii. ro-19), de livered 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. The fourth and last discourse (ch. ii. 20-23), delivered also on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, is exclu sively addressed to Zerubbabel, the political chief of the new Jewish colony, who, it appears, had asked for an explanation regarding the great poli tical revolutions which Haggai had predicted in his second discourse : it comforts the govemor by assuring him they would not take place very soon, and not in his lifetime. The style of the discourses of Haggai is suitable to their contents : it is pa thetic when he exhorts ; it is vehement when he reproves it is somewhat elevated when he treats of ruture events ; and it is not altogether destitute of a poetical colouring, though a prophet of a more vivid imagination would have depicted the splen dour of the Second Temple in brighter hues. One peculiarity of his style is the frequent repetition of the same expressions ; e. g., mro ;In (i. 2, 5, 7), ma+ nt..13 three times in one verse 4), with prn three times in the same Nerse, and three times also in one verse (i. 14). Eichhorn (Eznlei tung, sec. 599) attributes these repetitions to an attempt at ornament, rendering the writer disposed to recur frequently to a favourite expression. The prophetical discourses of Haggai, rIN'MJ '171 T1N12::, are referred to in the O. and N. T. (Ezra v. r ; vi. 14 ; Heb. xii. 26 ; comp. Ilagg. ii. 6. 7, 22). In most of the ancient catalogues of the canonical books of the O. T., 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 (Anti quities, xi. 4. 5), calls them 86o 7rpocpijrat.—J. v. H.
[Commentaries :—Abarbanel (Heb. cum vers. Lat. a J. A. Scherzio), Lips. 1663 ; Aben Ezra (Lat. in J. G. Abiehti, Select. Rabbinico-Philol. p. 278, where also at p. 79 is a Latin translation of Abarbanel's comment.), Melanchthon (opp. tom.
p. 527) Grynaeus, Gen. r5Sr ; Mercer, Par. 1551 ; Pilkington, Lond. 1560 ; Reynolds, Land. 1649 ; Hesslan, Lund. 1789 ; Newcome, Lond. 1785, Pontefr. 1809, Lond. 1836 ; Ackermann, Vien. 1830 ; Hitzig, Leipz. IS38 ; Henderson, Lond. 1845.]